Thank you for your response Tigerdunes. I will definitely check with the bidder on the third party evaporator coil. I specified matched systems having read your prior posts to others extensively, but didn't catch that this evaporator coil wasn't a matching Trane. Thanks. The boiler was sufficient in heating the entire 1200 square feet main floor living space with AND without all the radiators in place. I don't recall the size at the moment, but will check. The HVAC people were all pleased with its size when they looked at it. Because the house is without electric and water service as yet, we are not totally sure the boiler is still in working order. It was not fire damaged, but water from the fire fighters and heat from the fire might have caused some unknown problems, which was another reason to hedge the bet by adding a gas furnace. The second reason for considering a gas furnace, not just A/C is that a realtor who knows the house and its value, - which is considerable for a small house, given its location and craftsman, cedar shingled cottage charm - suggests that some buyers don't like radiator systems, and feels the addition of an alternate heat system and the addition of A/C will be worth it, which is another reason I got the bid for it. The third reason for considering a gas furnace is code compliance, and the cost to do so. The cost of adding hydronic units to the sunroom, pantry, dining room and bath areas to meet code are unnecessary if I install the gas furnace. Anyone wanting to use the radiator system only for heat would have to add these units, or live without them as I did, but code is met with the addition of a furnace. No furnace, and I have to add radiators in the areas mentioned above and detailed below. I agree that a heat pump would be the way to go if we knew for sure that the radiator system was going to be the primary source of heat as it was when I lived in the house. New owners might opt for a forced air system. My question on this is, can a gas furnace be added into the system as cost effectively later as it can be added now with the A/C going in. The new heating system, if installed, l would heat/coo the 1200 sq ft main floor with its 9 ft ceilings, with two registers in the open 950 sq ft unfinished basement. The basement stays cool in summer and warm in winter without additional heating and cooling. The attic space, if developed later, will be heated and cooled with an in-wall, Mitsubishi type system. Trying to run ducts and vents is a problem, which is why we don't have the new proposed system sited in the attic. It would make the attic fairly unusable in a future development as a master suite and sitting room. The ducting layout using the in the basement location has worked well, and the location of cold air returns well placed and spaced. So the attic will not be heated or cooled with this system. In the past, with the boiler, the heat loss from the main floor was enough to keep the attic above freezing, but does not warm it significantly. The attic has 4 large double window sets, 3 large Velux skylights and a 4.0 french door set, and the roof is black, so it stays warm enough on sunny days, and is well ventilated in summer.. The attic floor will be re-insulated at this time, but not the walls or ceiling. The new insulation in the attic floor will be far better than the old, and as I said, the new windows throughout, from basement to attic are a vast improvement in energy efficiency over what the boiler used to have to handle. The 950 sq ft basement is unheated at present, though I believe two registers will be added to this space with the new furnace The basement stays comfortable in winter when the boiler is in operation simply from the hot water pipes to the radiators and hot water heater and warmth of the up stairs. It is is open space, unfinished and only used for laundry and workshop space/tool storage. The dining room radiator was removed from under a south facing bump out window. That window was removed and replaced by an exterior double french door when a new deck was added at the time of the new boiler. The heat loss to this room was noticeable but not enough to be a problem for me, though it would be for others, and it is for code. Each room has to have a heat source, so I either have to put in a register or add a radiator. The bathroom is only 6x7 and is now warmed by the heat/fan which is not sufficient for code. I have a not yet installed hydronic towel bar that gives off 1500 BTU, enough to handle the bath and the small hall adjoining the dining room, bath, bedroom and parlor. If I do the gas furnace, this is unnecessary. At same time the new boiler was installed, a kitchen was installed in a 11x12 ft space that only had a sink and refrigerator with a radiator. An adjoining but separate 6x8 pantry at the south end of the kitchen had a stove and a cabinet. The pantry is also an access corridor to the basement stairs. So in installing a kitchen, I removed the radiator and replaced it with a toe kick radiator under the sink base the fully fitted kitchen. Base and upper cabinets were added to the pantry on the load bearing exterior wall that separated the pantry from the screen 8x8 screened back porch at the other half of the kitchen south wall. The fire that started at the electric service connection into the house was located on the east wall between the kitchen and screen porch, so this area and the attic above it were severely impacted by the fire. In rebuilding this area, the screen porch got a solid foundation, was mostly opened to the kitchen, and serves as a sunroom breakfast area. It is,fully windowed from ceiling to 36 inches above the floor with a door that opens to the deck. The load bearing wall separating the sunroom from the pantry still exists, but the pantry is now open to the kitchen rather than walled off with a doorway. The kitchen toe kick puts out 5,600 BTU and has to handle the kitchen sunroom and pantry area now. If I do not add a furnace, code will require me to heat the sunroom and pantry areas, which I would do with toe kick units under the pantry base cabinets - one venting into the sunroom through the wall and one venting into the pantry. If I add a furnace, this will not be required, we will simply use those areas for the forced air registers. If I do not add a furnace I will have to provide hydronic heat sources for both areas. So, to answer your question 4, the only addition to the heat load that the boiler has covered adequately (1200 sp ft) is the 8x8 fully weatherized and insulated sunroom. If I go with a gas furnace we will add the register(s) for the unfinished basement. I don't know if code requires the basement to be covered. I do know the non living space attic does not need to be covered. Sorry for all the detail, but I find that sooner or later the information is needed, so I am trying to give it all upfront.

I have 15 SEER Heat pump with vs ahu. propane for stove & water heater. best move I made was getting away from propane for heat. variable speed air handler unit keeps RH between 52-55%. I only hooked up half of my heat strips & only once has vs ahu gone into high speed. both times last winter...when we had 3 weeks of freezing temps. this is where I was heading with you op...but tiger dunes did it very well! just like you want to mastic seal ducts, air seal the ceiling/attic floor before insulating. air will still move from attic into conditioned space through the insulation. this will de-rate the insulation value & not let insulation perform at its R-value. caulk is a great air sealer. buy clear caulk with a long life. btw...lot of difference between 26 year old unit's efficiency & the ones you are choosing between. best of luck.

Thanks Charles -- I did look at the guidelines that you mentioned. However, it refers to gaps 'at completion' of the job and not within the 1 year warranty period. Everything I've read indicates that installing hardwood without controlling the temp / humidity for what the living conditions will be is a big no no. Re: your comment about the 'difference in moisture content of the wood floor & subfloor' -- if they are both swollen from the high humidity, then they would both shrink under the normal living conditions right? Do they both shrink at the same rate, etc? There are numerous gaps, face checking (cracks on the tops of boards -- some with the grain and some against the grain), and gaps under the baseboards (where I can easily insert a penny). I thought this was a GREAT article that directly discusses the topic of installing with no HVAC: http://www.floordaily.net/floorfocus/challenges_involved_with_installing_hardwood_wood.aspx I noticed many installers recommended waiting or turning down the job if necessary. It sounds like my builder and the installer both made a bad decision. So, isn't this something their insurance would cover? I just want my floor fixed -- not with a band-aid for a short term solution (until the warranty runs out). I just want a good quality floor and to enjoy our new home. Sigh.........

Well competing technologies win out and defeat other competing technologies. Or the flood of cheaper panels cause companies with greater cost panels to go bankrupt. There is a technology that could eventually win out again and clean the field again... probably more than that after that and so on. You say how robust the panels are, they withstand hail. They do this, they do that. None of you *that I know of* actually install solar panels and deal with potential problems. None of you *that I know of* perform warranty calls on installed solar systems. Certainly neither do I, but I know from my experience as a HVAC Service Contractor that crap happens. Things go wrong. If the things you say didn't go wrong... what pray tell is the purpose of the warranty? Hail? how big of hail? pea size. Yeah no specifics from none of you. I've seen softball size hail in my life time. I've seen golf ball size, pea size. The larger the size the more the damage... Million dollar homes have solar panels & ugliness. My personal opinion is that they don't look any more ugly than anything else on a roof. Ugliness is a matter of personal opinion. I live in reality. In that reality I know that if I were to buy solar panels I am not going to drive them down the street. But if I start hearing that solar panels on roof tops are catching fire OR the myriad of other problems that *that could happen* --- my goal isn't to bury my head in the sand and call these sorts of things fairy tales. The con is lets put this contraption on a million dollar home, because it will save a fortune in utility costs (which it may) ---- but then because we are so focused on saving a buck lets not maintain it. It just sits there on the roof... (it's not a car or truck) Then mysteriously we drive home one day...... 5, 10, 15 years into the wild blue yonder to see a black smoke over head. All that money we saved on utilities or what we thought we saved. Don't worry homes burn down (million dollar or less) for other reasons than having solar panels as an ignition source. So feel free to use that excuse if you want to. Technology is a beast unto itself. Boom to bust. One tech gets swallowed by another. 30 years is a long time in the tech realm. To put that into perspective that smart phone you have thinner than a stack of cards --- didn't exist 30 years ago. The energy market (electricity creation) is probably easily a $Trillion$ dollar market. In high tech world... that doesn't spell anything good for a 30 year solar panel in *todays* world. There's some problems with newer competing tech, but it's just a matter of time until something better comes along. What is top notch tech today, is dust tomorrow. Boosting Solar Production to over come Tariffs