HRU - Not what I consider the best value especially for a homeowner. I'm a 57 year old retired , at 46, scientist who worked for many years in the field consulting in analytical materials labs. I worked with lots of instrumentation and it all had various systems to move heat or do various things with materials and electricity. I also was exposed thoroughly to developing methods to test how plants who make things run their production lines. Anyway I say this kind of product doesn't look like a good value to me for a couple of simple reasons. 1. The initial cost . If it's $100 or less well I can't complain. It's only a box with a tube basically. So what you pay is money that's out of service for you and not working elsewhere. 2. The freon has to be plumbed into the unit. This is more cost and introduces something I would never do in a laboratory unless it had more gains than this ... A leak would ruin the A/C unit and cause downtime plus the cost of the A/C unit. This isn't a good plan. If the unit came with the A/C mfg design I would consider it a part of the method the plant uses to build the entire unit. But aftermarket just does not ever make much sense to me unless .. there is no other way. I think there's another way. 3. The efficiency ratings I read are 10%. That is exactly the gain I got when I water cooled my coils on a home refrigerator unit. I got a similar reading when I cooled a regular home A/C unit with water. The amount of water to cool my parent's 4 or 5 ton , 1935 (it's still running) A/C unit is about 6 gallons / hour. The amount of water usage is very low. So I say this: Use water to cool your coils. You'll lose the heat energy to the water if the water's thrown away but assuming it's at home the water can be used so it's not wasted. And if you want some heat that's in the water then plumb a regular $50 heater core or small radiator on the cooling coils of your A/C unit. If the size doesn't fit .. yes you'll have to reconsider the design. Maybe you can only run 1/4" copper tubing firmly attached to the coils .. But you'll be running water through the secondary coolling system .. not freon. And a failure of that system won't affect the safety or even the operation of the A/C .. as long as you haven't blocked the air flow. If not for the probable high initial cost . I'm guessing $400 and the plumbing into the freon line I would be positive towards a unit like this. Which I am via the design ideas above. 4. Another method to cool coils without putting water directly on them is to use a 'swamp cooler' design around the coils where air comes in to pass over. I realize this won't work as well in Houston or Florida. However air that is 90F and wet will still carrry away more heat than air that is dry and at 90F. Any gain of humidity with pads and a bit of water over them will give you some gain of efficiency. And there is the fact that your compressor will run longer.. ours has been running in 100F Summers since 1935. And I personally know it's been running since 1975 without any maintenance or downtime and the costs of running it are low. This will occur with both plans of my idea or the HRU. One things I don't quite get in the marketing is the absolute heat temp of the output of the HRU. If the compressor is to run cool it 's going to need cool water. The outflow from the unit we have , from 1935, is at about 15F above the incoming temp. While this would help to preheat water I would not expect hot water nor would I want hot water. I 'd want my compressor to run as cool as possible. You decide. I have not run extensive testing. I'm using mostly experience but not any calculations on the HRU except the specs I've seen. I have an idea. Seriously. Why not put a 100 gallon tank of water in your car and use your engine to heat it to about 180F as you drive around? Then when you get home you'll have a day's worth of very very hot water 'for free'. Seriously. This is the exact design used for carpet cleaning vans which use engine heat to heat the steam either preheating or fully heating. I don't know how they can get to 212F without the engine overheating but they do , for about $3000, offer a heater that runs off the engine and heats the clearning water. why not do the same and then 'plug in your water tank' when you get home for an whole night's worth of hot water ? There are ideas out there. They're not dumb. Just weigh the cost and risks. Andre

I finally found the tiles that I believe are on this fireplace FYI - they are from Susan Jablong Designs. I have been on the phone with them for a number of design questions and I have to say they are incredibly pleasent to deal with. I have dealt with Emily (Susan's daughter) and she has just been so helpful as I have gone back and forth on my decisions as I always do, always second guessing my choices. I definately give her the patience of the year award. So here is the link in case you are interested: I considered going to their offices as they just had so many wonderful tile designs but it is five hours each way, but it was probably for the better as I think I would definately have had a more difficult time narrowing it down. Can't wait now to redo the kitchen, and the main bath, and the master bath... Here is a link that might be useful: Blush champagne tile

Mamapinky, I washed them in my washing machine in cold water. I know they probably should have been dry cleaned but I had too many. Plus, if they turned out badly....no real loss, since I have never used them and probably never will. I washed them with Era and Biz and used fabric softener on them. I dried them in the shade....hung them on the fence. They all came out nice and soft. Two of the blankets are camp blankets and have the name of the camp on them....one is Ridgecrest...can't remember the other one....and the name of the camper. Another one has a tag that says Made in Australia, 1943. Then there are some with a Pendleton tag and some with other tags. I have about a dozen and about an equal number of wool throws. I have a "new...to me" washing machine. At first I didn't like it very much. It is a GE, like my old faithful, and has an agitator but I am used to one that really washes hard and this one just sort of swirls the water through the clothes, but I am okay with it now, because it really gets everything clean. Jody hired his helper again the next day, but halfway through the day, he hurt his back. He hobbled around in pain for the rest of the day....had to take helper home...and I thought he would be down for quite awhile. I hurt my back awhile back and it took a few weeks before it quit hurting. However, the next day, he was back at it and hasn't said much more about his back. Glad he had a quick recovery. ;) We moved home two nights ago. We are sleeping on an air mattress on the floor. I will buy a bed and mattress as soon as I get a chance to go out and look for one. Probably this weekend. Still haven't got the horses home....still working on the fence. Lots of big trees fell on the fence. The old fence would have held my horses but Amos, the donkey, will be out with them, and he is very independent and he will leave if he sees an opportunity. He will come back, but the horses will follow him and it is dangerous, since there is a highway about 3/4 of a mile away. We have done a lot but it is hard to see we have made any progress because there is still so much to do. We keep working on it.

I have a $20 1x1 brand, which looks like the Leaf and RCA - just a notebook sized piece of flexible vinyl. It does have to sit in the window to get all of the local stations (because of the room site and where I want the TV in the room. Absolutely easy to connect and then have the TV scan for channels. MarilynC, you might like to have a Roku. No continuing fees beyond the initial purchase (anywhere from $25 and up, depending on the model - I have the cheapest and it meets all my needs.) Roku offers lots of free streaming channels, including news channels that would include Houston. Of course, they also offer other channels for a subscription price, which mostly run $5-6/month. Right now I am paying for Curiosity Stream and Acorn; for July & August I paid for Peacock Premium so that I could watch the Tour de France, The Tour of Spain, and some of the Olympics.