after researching, talking to plumbers who specialize in hydronic heat, and pricing out all the panels i have found that runtals have one of the best reputations, but also the highest price. Too high for our heating budget which is low if you take the $4500 for the wood stove out of the equation. I have heard from several heating/plumbing guys that mysons (and other inexpensive brands that they did not specify or I do not remember) we lacking in quality and construction. I had several recommendations for buderus and one for veha. In looking into both, it appears they are the same and most likely produced in the same east asian factory. Veha's models are the same ones that buderus stocks. Buderus has many models that veha does not, but lead time is something like 6 weeks. Veha sells direct and my plumbing supply house (where i get 40% off list) carries buderus. Veha has great customer service, at least that has been my experience so far. They respond to emails usually with-in an hour. My buderus customer service has been through a middle man, my plumbing supply house. Veha is over 50% cheaper than the buderus at my good price. Veha say they ship out next day and I do not pay sales tax. Buderus is over 10 days, I pay tax but no shipping. I am going with veha.

The standard rule in plumbing is that "right/clockwise" is cold (righty-tighty) and "left/counter-clockwise" is hot (lefty-loosey). If you think of traditional sinks, with two separate temperature control knobs, the cold knob is always on the right and the hot knob is always on the left. This has been standardized so that you'll know how the sink works no matter whose house or business you're in, so that scalding accidents will be less likely. A problem arises, however, with some modern faucets such as this one that have a single lever located on the side of the faucet, in this case, on the right side. If you imagine yourself standing on the right side of the faucet, then turning the lever back toward the wall would be to the right/clockwise, so that should be cold. Turning the lever front toward the sink/room would be left/counter-clockwise, so that should be hot. Most manufacturer's instructions, and red/blue indicators, will follow this standard practice and state that back should be cold and forward should be hot. As many people have noted, however, children are short and most commonly will pull the handle forward to turn the sink on, which means they will get hot water with the standard orientation. That's not ideal, because that creates a risk that children will get scalded, which is precisely the result the standard orientation was trying to avoid. For many people, there is also something counter-intuitive about pulling forward for hot. Because hot seems more "dangerous" than cold, our instinct is to push it away (back toward the wall), not pull it forward (toward the sink). So, if people do the intuitive thing and pull the handle forward, they're also increasing their risk of a scalding injury with the standard orientation. Then, we also have the consideration that the handle looks better to most people in the up/vertical position than in the forward/angled position, so there's an argument to be made that up/vertical should be the "standard" position, which would be cold. That aligns with the standard orientation, where back/vertical is cold and front/angled is hot. Finally, some manufacturers may defy the standard orientation, and their instructions or red/blue dots may indicate that forward is cold and back is hot. So, putting all this together, I think the technically "correct" answer is that the standard way to orient the lever is back for cold and forward for hot, but the manufacturer's instructions or red/blue dots may indicate otherwise, and you may prefer otherwise if your intuition guides you in that direction, or if you have small children who tend to pull the handle forward. If you don't use the standard orientation, guests who come into your home may have a bit of a learning curve, but they may have a learning curve anyway if they also are intuitively expecting hot to be back and cold forward. So, I think the bottom line is that you should do what you want, or what the manufacturer says to do, but the standard practice is back for cold and front for hot.

You are going to use existing radiators? One pipe system or two-pipe? Does your steam system work well (silently, no leaks, even heat)? I don't think that steam is well-suited to temperature set-backs. Is that what you like to do? You have natural gas? If no gas, a heat pump might be a good bet. New England is a climate-diverse area if you are in the extreme part wrt cold, a heat pump might not be appropriate. I think, hot water can give you a more efficient boiler compared to steam. The end efficiency of the hydronic heat boiler depends a great deal on the overall design of the heating system. You must have sufficient radiation to bring down the temperature of the return water to condensing temperature. If your system as a whole can't deliver this, don't install a condensing boiler. It is the wrong tool for the job and will not function well. You might stick with steam if your system can't support an efficient hot water boiler and you don't want to spend a lot to install new rads or ducts. Lastly, finding good steam workers can be tough. If there is a youngster in your area that can handle your system until you die, you will be in luck. There are lots of boiler people at terry love.com and at heatinghelp.com (the wall). Beware, there are lots of steam chauvinists there that will not budge for an efficiency argument. condensing boiler explanation

Eh, I'd say that if the rest of your house is cast iron, get more cast iron. You can't go wrong with cast iron for hot water heat - it holds heat for a very long time so your heating is super steady and even. I think you'll be happy with a bigger cast iron radiator in the powder room - we have a huge cast iron radiator in our small main bathroom and it's always gloriously warm in there, even if the heat isn't actively running, thanks to the cast iron radiator holding onto residual heat and, well, radiating it. I looked up Runtal radiators because I'd never heard of them. They are quite pretty, especially if you want a more modern look and to save space. But they aren't cast iron, which means they'll heat up faster but also cool off faster, leaving you with greater temperature fluctuations than you'd likely find with cast iron. Not sure that's really an issue in a powder room though.