Judy - Each mature fan should put up a scape. Sometimes with a lot of rain, like this spring here, some fans will double scape. I have one daylily, Adamas, that is triple scaping on one fan. But these are anomalies and certainly not the norm. On the other hand, some daylilies are really fussy about being transplanted. I've had some not put up any scapes for three years. Fans may not put up any scapes if they are planted too deeply, don't get enough sun or need to be divided. Hope this helps. Debra

If you use a whole house fan, there is no point in having a sealed attic system. You need an old fashioned "open" attic system. You want the hot air to vent out through the gable ends. You have a grate in a hallway that opens and the (presumably) cooler air from outside the home is drawn in through the open windows through the home, through the grate, and exits through the attic vents. WHole house fans are NOT compatible with conjunctively using your AC system. And, as I mentioned, the exterior of the home must be cooler (and less humid) than the interior for the whole house fan to be a viable option. 85° is pretty hot for most people, and I presume you're in the South where the humidity is also very high. Southerners LOVE their AC for a reason and long ago abandoned their whole house fans except for about 15 days in the spring and fall. WHole house fans are like owning a convertable. It sounds like a good idea, and if you live in a place like San Francisco, it probably IS a good idea. But, for folks who live in most of the rest of the country, there just isn't enough ideal weather in the year to be able to fully utilize that top down motoring.

Bringing up air from a basement that has not been checked for radon is not a good idea. It sounds like you have that covered. Is the basement dry or humid? If humid, it will add a more significant load than you might expect from the temperature. What kind of water heater do you have there? Depending on your climate and what you use to heat water, you could consider adding a heat pump water heater.

Like Jack, my only auto-defrost freezer is the one on my refrigerator and things do seem to get freezer burned more quickly, and it doesn't seem to freeze as "hard" as the others. In addition to the bottom freezer on my fridge, I have three chest freezers and an upright, and defrost them all yearly when beef is being processed, then go help my daughter defrost her upright. Yes, I use them all, LOL. Two are in the pole barn, one is strictly for beef and the other a mix of venison and chickens, we raise meat birds every year and my husband hunts. The upright in the garage holds pork, we buy a hog locally every year and the final chest freezer in the garage is for garden produce like corn, shredded zucchini for zucchini bread, bags of rhubarb and broccoli. It's also where the raspberries and strawberries we grow go, and the asparagus from our patch. Any butternut squash left in storage in the spring will be roasted, pureed and packed into bags and stored there too, along with peach slices for cobbler and things like freezer jam, homemade bread, unbaked cookie dough, etc. Because they are not in the house, it's easier to defrost, if it melts a puddle onto the floor it's easily cleaned. My daughter's freezer in in their breezeway, so easily cleaned there too. It's a bigger problem keeping the freezer contents organized than it is defrosting them, LOL. Annie