how big is this area in sq ft? when building new...this is the time to get it right. IF you have a hvac co that understands zoning then make the master suite on a separate zone. size system for whole house manual J design & size ductwork man S&D install system & duct design correctly. now is the easiest time to do so. I'm not a fan of separate units for different floors. homeowner ends up paying for multiple units more cost upfront, more cost to operate. the one system per floor is hvac co's way of covering their butts...it isn't to your advantage at all. zoned systems work, when designs are incorporated and installed according to design. several zones per system. you could have each floor on a zone, and even break the floors down into seperate zones controlled by their own tstat. at night put less hvac in kitchen living section and more to bedrooms for example, zoned systems are to adjust to how you live in the house. shop hvac co's that understand & do zoned systems...one unit multiple tstats...not multiple systems. best of luck.

The hyper heat heat pump can make sense to cool an area with difficult access for ducts. Does the basement fit that description? It will cost you more to heat it with a heat pump than with natural gas. What are the aims of zoning, saving energy or comfort? If the former, you are probably barking up the wrong tree. If you have a well-sealed, well-insulated home, your heat transfer rates between rooms/floors will be much faster than out of the structure. Zoning can be difficult to accomplish, but not impossible. With old-school high mass boilers, it was not so difficult, but a modern, low-mass boiler, if sized to heat a large area, will be shutting off frequently. The same may be true for furnaces, but I am not as familiar with that issue. I've seen you write boilers and furnaces, which are you looking for? You can do forced air heat with hydro coils powered by a boiler, or with a furnace. With a hydro coil, you might be able to heat the bonus room but you'd still need a way to cool it. Cost calculations would tell you if it is worth it to install separate cooling and heating systems there. What are you planning on doing in the basement? Is is going to be just one, open area? I'd consider hiring an energy rater to help you plan and set milestones for the builder. They can help you choose your mechanical systems appropriately. They can do blower door tests to make sure that the house is air-sealed and insulated properly. Where are you located? It can make a big difference in figuring out what kinds of equipment to install if you have to heat a lot vs. cool a lot or both. Humidity is an issue too.

The Nichiha (fiber cement) was an incredible bargain. Lowe's normally charged $7.88 a piece. I went in one day, and they had marked it down to $3.88. I thought about buying it, but waited two weeks. When I went back to look at it, it was marked down to $1.88! They had a whole pallet; 250 pieces, and it came to less than $500 including tax. I still have enough left over to side our shed. Our house is 1444 sq ft on one level, with a full walk-out basement. Because the house is so well built (ICF) and R-50 in the attic, our winter heat load calculates out to 12,000 BTU, which is one ton. The summer cooling load is only 9,000 BTU, or 3/4 ton. This is in upstate SC. I had to go minisplit, as they don't make central systems that small. We put one 12K unit in the main part of the house, and a 9K in the master suite. We only run the 12K 99% of the time, and shut it off, and run the 9K at night for cooling. We've only run them both a couple times when it was in the single digits outside. They are Mitsubishi HyperHeat units, good to some -13 F. Our typical summer electric bill is only $20/month higher than no A/C, and winter heat is about $40/month during the coldest months. This season, we were able to leave the heat off until Jan 4, and turned it off in early March, so we only heated for 2 months. Some of that is attributed to our mild climate, but the ICF performs very well, being very tight, well insulated, and having a lot of thermal mass. If you build an energy-efficient house, make SURE that your HVAC contractor knows what they are doing. I had one so-called professional insist that our house needed a 2-1/2 ton central system. That would have been a disaster, wasting energy and performing poorly. Our minis dehumidify very well, and even have a dehumidify mode when it is damp, but too cool for A/C. They are extremely efficient (26 SEER) and nearly silent, both indoors and out. We keep our doors between rooms open all the time, and have a very open plan.

Saturday, May 28th! The guest bedroom has been painted! (First coat only). I love it, and it works well with the ceiling paint I chose! This photo is the most color-accurate of the lot. Wall color: Sherwin Williams Whole Wheat. Ceiling: Sherwin Williams Canvas Tan, a warm white to be used throughout the house. View is out through the hallway (also Canvas Tan) into the master. And here you see the wall color - a little less accurately -- with the future floorboard sample: In other news, I brought up the lights for the kitchen (a set over the prep area, and another set over the main sink). I'll have them hang down from the cathedral ceiling to a level of 7.5 feet above floor. I still need to pick out ceiling fans with lights. Arrgghh, decisions!! Going through the brochure, most are pretty pug-ugly, and I also wonder how I'll be changing bulbs from the ground. Most are encased in glass enclosures, so the ole stick the elongaged lightbulb changer up there isn't going to help. I planted the garden. Well, I put in my cannas tubers and calla lily bulbs, behind the garage next to the dining area. The GC has to finish grading the area, but he's got space to work with without disturbing the plants. I also left plenty of room -- even more than he said he needed -- so he can finish off the outside of the house. The bamboo (and other) stakes are marking off parameters. I amended the soil with organic topsoil and compost - did you know a lot of purchased topsoil comes from disturbed regions of the country, disturbed by events such as hurricanes, which indiscriminately mix up who knows what? As the very front of the plot will eventually be given to cooking herbs, I care about this! Here, the topsoil/compost mixture has been added. Here, the plants have been placed, and more defining stakes have been added. And the ground watered -- I have running water, if only from a hose! The outer edges define this eventual relatively-flat garden space. Those two little stakes are the line for the calla lilies, and the cannas tubers are behind. I went home that evening, and missed out on some friends who'd driven up from New York to surprise me -- I guess that surprised them! Anyhow, Sunday: I started staining some units for my closets. After checking out the closet planner on Easy Closets and getting some great ideas, I decided I could save a ton of money by doing my own useful shelving. Two tall narrow shelves I'd just purchased, and a pre-existing dresser my father left with me back about twelve years ago got called into service, and stained. Unfortunately, even outside, the oil based stain I used on the tall shelves got to me -- hot day, the air not moving -- so I went back and bought a water based one for the dresser. I'll be putting them in different closets, so the color change doesn't matter. There are two of these, and they will go to the edges of a four-foot deep closet. The dresser drawers -- the body was hard to move so I stained that inside my garage -- will go into a similar closet. Unfortunately, before I took the drawers inside yesterday evening, a rude bird had decided to drop a little doot on one of the drawers. I'll see how I can fix that today, when it stops raining.