I ordered from all over the place; Southern US, West Coast, and Canada. I received active bands, active minis, and bareroot. All were pretty time consuming to unpack, but the extra packing care seemed to have kept all the roses in very good shape. Interestingly, the messiest and most tangled packing job were the 7 bareroots in one box, all wrapped in one plastic bag, and they are also the largest, healthiest, bloom-makin'-est monsters in the garden right now. Guess the inconvenience to me wasn't so much a trauma for the roses. I could be way off base, but I have a suspicion that streamlining the packing process isn't a top priority for the nurseries. I'd imagine that they go the extra mile to make sure that roses arrive in good condition because there's nothing worse than having a reputation for shipping dead product. I think the trade off is extra time and $$ to make sure they don't rack up warranty/guarantee expenses.

Fortunately, it's a smart thermostat. It won't let you change registers that aren't applicable based on some of the earlier/basic system settings. If 0342 is set to 0 (no outdoor sensor), then you won't be able to adjust 0350 or 0360. But a GSHP isn't really affected by the outdoor temp, since the heat exchange pipes are buried just for that purpose (to be unaffected by cold temperature). If you want to change 0300 for auto changeover, it will let you set the deadband in 0310 once you turn on changeover. Personally, I've never used this. We 'let it ride' when the temperature's moderate. On the 0200 setting, what's the setting in 0176? If it's '1,' then the stat isn't running the aux heat and you won't be able to change 0200. This could be the case if a control board at the air handler is determining when to turn on the strips. I'm guess that this could be your problem- another control that's running the aux heat rather than wringing the last bit of heat out of the GSHP. That would also defeat the use of the intelligent recovery feature of the stat. All that the air handler sees is a "run heat" signal, then it decides which heat to provide. The alternative, likely possible by landing extra low-voltage wire(s) at the interface box (unused strand(s) of thermostat wire that's already run) and changing some jumpers at the air handler, is for the stat to call for the GSHP as the primary heat and then call for staged electric strips as one or more backup heat sources. The alternative is that intelligent recovery is turned off in 0530, which you didn't mention in your response. It's kind of analogous to our problems with the dual fuel kit outside at our air-source heat pump. I added the outdoor sensor to the stat and took the dual fuel kit out of the loop to get more precise control over when the aux heat (gas in our case) runs.

I found some lock & lock containers on clearance a while back. Three in different sizes. I bought all of them They were only &6.00. They big one to buy alone cost double that. I watch all the time to catch them on sale. They are available in almost all stores now.. The Sterilite brand is just as good.. They have a vent button on top for microwaving. Target sells them. Susie

I lived in a house with a finished concrete slab as the main flooring for about 5 years. Overall, I liked it a lot, especially the look. However, I relate to the concerns mentioned by the previous posters. I lived in the northeast, but my floor would still "sweat" a few times during the summer. Very weird experience, but rare enough to not be a huge issue for me. It is indeed a very hard surface, which can be hard on our body, especially if you have any joint issues. Regarding your question about efficiency, my house was definitely very efficient. Much more so than the old farmhouse on a 200 year old basement I have now. If you put a significant amount of insulation under the slab, you will have a very efficient home. The typical passivhaus approach, the most rigorous efficiency standard right now, is typically done on a slab because it is much easier to air seal and insulate than is a basement or crawl space. We had radiant heat in our slab. Because the slab is a tremendous thermal mass, this is a very efficient approach if you will be keeping the house heated throughout the winter. For a second home, this option can be annoying because it takes the slab quite a while to come up to temperature. I had this issue because I was traveling a lot at the time and would turn the heat down. When I'd come home, it would take about 12 hours to bring the house temperature up just using the slab heat. However, we didn't have insulation in our slab because it was a converted barn with a repurposed slab. YMMV if you have insulation underneath.