sure Mike, I'm not a big fan of analogies, because I find that all too often people use them to misdirect. But, when I first got into this business this was the analogy that was the light bulb moment for me. It is easier to heat/cool a tight box than a leaky box. pretty simple isn't it. so take a minute to think about it. if the house is 2000 sq ft living space and has an air leakage measurement of 2000 cfm (cubic feet of air per minute) it is a pretty tight house. but if the air infiltration is 4000 cfm...there is a lot of leakage. people often assume that their homes are tight with little air leakage. but until you test the house to measure the leakage & identify where the leaks are...its a wag. blower door testing shows where & how much leakage exists. our worst leakage site is to the attic. (not the front door!) attic temps are very extreme, and when this extreme temp air enters the house it brings dust, insulation particles & the attic temps that you then pay to condition. if you are only conditioning the air in the living space, it is easier, and affordable. sealing the air leakage has a very short roi, because the benefits are fast & long lasting. the next area that saves quickly, and improves indoor air quality is duct leakage. mastic sealing ductwork, plenum to equipment connections, return air chases & supply boxes to ceiling..(or walls or floors depending on the location of ducts)these things put the air you pay to condition into the house. otherwise this air leaks into unconditioned spaces. attic..crawlspace & basement. note mastic seal..not aeroseal, not duct tape or foil tape. mastic & mastic tape. you want something affordable that seals all leaks and lasts for a long time. mastic sealing has 30+ year life. I've been blower door testing & duct testing homes for a long time. it is highly unusual to find tight existing homes. same for ductwork. install, not air sealing is the focus of the trades people. slowly both builders & hvac installers are understanding..but it isn't common. until designers & architects start designing putting the ductwork inside the conditioned space at a time when it is the cheapest & easiest to do (design time) we will pay for putting our ducts & equipment in extreme areas. small things..recessed lights are a huge deal. not only for the amount of air they bring in from the attic, but the way they effect the indoor air quality. IC can lights are designed so that insulation can be installed next them. the housing of the IC can has holes. not only do these holes de-rate the R-value of the insulation, but they bring in attic air, and insulation particles. a simple thing is to only use ICAT recessed lights. (insulation contact Air Tight) retrofitting each IC light to air tight..costly &/or labor intensive. doing it right to start with..and realizing that efficiency costs are upfront..and long term is where we need to be investing. I'll step off my soap box now! if you need clarification, just post. best of luck

Missstella To your last question. Without going into technical jargon, electronic demand defrost is a feature on heat pumps that eliminate unnecessary, nuisance, and costly defrost calls. It is found only on a few brand/models of heat pumps including Trane/AmStd, York, and Rudd/Rheem. It is much more desirable over the cheap time/temp method of defrost. I don't think I said 2 ton was oversized. since this is upstairs system, I would probably stick to a 2 1/2 ton assuming you have has no cooling and/or humidity issues. Here is the Rheem system I would consider. 3879236 Active Systems RHEEM RPQL SERIES RHEEM MANUFACTURING COMPANY RPQL-030JEZ � RCFL-H*3617 RGPE-05?BMK? 29800 12.50 15.00 29200 9.00 18400 Existing lineset size will need to be verified. You would need a good two stg thermostat suitable for DF operation along with outdoor sensor. The heat pump would offer about 29 KBTUs and the two stg furnace would have a low stg of 35 KBTUs and high stage of 40 KBTUs which should be more than adequate for 1000 sq ft upstairs living space. IMO

It depends a lot on how you use the kitchen. DW is 5'4" and I am 5'8" so we're very similar in size. I went with 19" because I use a tilt up mixer a lot and when I've had a lower clearance I've felt it really affected my sight lines/made it harder to see what I was doing. On the positive side - It does make the higher shelves on your uppers easier to reach. Are you planning on any undercab lighting? If so what kind and how will that affect your clearance? I know a lot of people are opposed to this, but I actually like a slightly shorter counter height so I had 3/4" shaved off of my base cabs (but not the island where the range is) . I asked my GC who was extremely knowledgeable if I could shave off an inch and the max he advised was 3/4". He was right - more would have been trouble. I'm happy with it so far and don't think it's that noticeable. It could bother someone at resale time, but I'm willing to live with that trade off for a counter height that's more comfortable for DW and myself. If you do shorten, you want to be very, very careful about measuring your DW and range. My brand new Bosch DW had problems and had to be swapped out with a new one. The repair person who swapped them out (not the original installer) was not pleased about the clearance but did manage to get the new one in. Also, IMO, This is the kind of thing a KD should help make the right decision on, not make a bad decision for you without consulting you. They absolutely should have checked with you about this. If this can't be fixed easily, I would ask them to make it up to you in some other way.

I have lots of mini splits. My floors are very cold over a crawl space and the ceilings are 9'. The mini splits make great ceiling heaters when left to themselves to modulate the blower speed as they reach set point. Keeping the blower speed set higher or ceiling fans help. If my home was better insulated, it might not be a problem. You have a heat pump now? Is natural gas available? If so, investigate a natural gas furnace. That will be much less costly to install for heat. With ducts in the open, it seems like regulating the air flow to reach comfort and balance should be relatively easy. Some manual dampers should be able to redirect more air to the bedrooms when needed for cooling and less when needed for heat. Additional ducts or larger ducts can easily be installed if more air flow is needed. 1400 sq feet is small for two systems. Bringing some of the ductwork down near floor level would be a big help if you can do it. If you need to stick with heat pumps, a couple of mini splits systems will work, one for the bedrooms and one for the big space. A high wall unit might work in the big space with the fans. With the bedrooms, you might consider a minimally-ducted mini split. (That could handle the unmentioned bathroom too unless you have an outhouse.) Two systems will help with comfort, but don't be seduced with thoughts of saving fuel if the home is well insulated and air sealed. If it is, heat moves much faster from room to room than to outdoors.