"V, the old furnace is York (don't remember the model) and it is 70kbup. The house is 2600sf including 900sf finished basement. I am in northeast (Mass)." Depending on how old the furnace was, it could be as low as 60 - 70% efficient, meaning an output of about 46,000 BTU. If it ran constantly and kept the house warm on the coldest day, then your new unit is vastly oversized. Your new furnace would output about 84,000 BTU. Was a heat calc done? Whose idea was it to install this size of furnace? "V, another question - would that be wise to ask another experienced contractor to investigate this work based on this work? It has reached my limitation at this point." If you're thoroughly disgusted with your contractor, and seek another contractor, you will be on the hook for the repairs. Also, you would lose any labor warranty offered by your present contractr. If your furnace is registered with the manufacturer, you MIGHT be able to have your mfg's warranty honored by another contractor, i.e., parts would be covered. Labor, would be on you. Not being a PRO, I would suggest you check the manufacturer's customer service dept for particulars. Good luck. V

I assume you do not currently have a softener in place. Please confirm. I will try to go through your questions in order. Conductivity: This will always be higher than TDS. It has to do with they types of ions in your water. Your conductivity is on the high end of the scale based on your TDS, but not out of line. Other analysis: Do you have any rusty, brown, or black staining on fixtures? If so - test your water for iron and manganese. Sediment filtration: Two cartridge filters is certainly a viable option. Install them in parallel so that one cartridge may be changed without interrupting water supply to your home. Make sure to use 4" diameter, not 2". Big Blue is a very reliable brand. I like the clear housings for a visible indicator, but that is just my personal preference. All cartridge filters are a pain to change. If you currently have to make frequent cartridge changes you may wish to consider a backwashing sediment filter instead of cartridges. It would be similar in appearance to a softener, but pretty much no work on your part to operate. Softeners: Kinetico softeners are very reliable, but expensive (as you mentioned). If you are willing to spend the money up front and like your local dealer, they would be a good choice. Regeneration time is not an issue with any twin-tank softener, whether Kinetico or Fleck, since one tank is always available to provide soft water while the other is being regenerated. A Fleck of Clack twin tank softener would take up significantly more space than a Kinetico because you would have to purchase a larger softener to accommodate the higher flow rate for your jacuzzi tub. Sprinkler system: Yes, bypass the sprinkler system. There is no sense paying to soften all that extra water. RO: Any RO system will last longer if fed softened water. The minerals you get from water are in minute quantities - even heavily mineral laden water would be insufficient to provide the minerals your body needs. Additionally, your water has nitrates. If you want them removed from your drinking water, RO is the only reasonable way to do so. Why do you want a carbon filter? What, specifically, do you want removed from your water? Certainly two would be overkill. Once may be as well, unless you have a specific contaminant in mind. Softener bypass: Here is a picture of what a three-valve bypass should look like. And a drawing of a setup:

Link works for me on my desktop. Looks great Pete! Thanks for the photos. I agree, there is something great about watching a tiny tree grow into something substantial. The majority of my plants started as puny mail orders. Only now have I started buying larger size plants and stretching my plant budget.

I find that using my iPhone/iOS, when starting in the Cooking Forum, I cannot start a new thread in the Cooking Forum (because Cooking is not offered as a forum to select) but if I am on my PC then I can (Cooking is preselected, even though it is still not offered in the list of forums). Or, in iOS Safari, if I request Desktop site, then I can. When starting in any other forum, I cannot cross-post to Cooking Forum (it is neither preselected nor offered in the list of forums.