It really wouldn't be hard to substitute an induction cooktop and a single wall oven for a range. In fact a cooktop/oven combination is a pretty common arrangement. You need to select an oven whose manufacturer says it is okay for undercounter installation (or face potential warranty problems). The Kenmore cooktop is thinner than most countertops, so clearance won't be a problem. My oven is a Kenmore Elite made by Whirlpool. My 1964 house already had a 40 amp/220 volt circuit for its cooktop and a separate circuit for its original double oven, however, if you have a range, you may only have one circuit and running a second one would probably cost around $300 (in Southern California -- YMMV). Several people have hooked their cooktops up to existing 30 amp circuits without trouble since it never actually runs at max power on all four "hobs". Note that the top does get hot from contact with the hot pan. However, I never hesitate to pick up spilled items from active "hobs" (precious, but you can't call them "burners" either) with my bare fingers -- try that on your range. Spills can be wiped up while you work and nothing ever gets burned onto the top so no scrubbing or scraping. It shuts itself off, if it can't sense the pan after a few seconds. The Kenmore cooktop is frequently on sale. I paid $1350 last summer. Any more questions?

Buy American, Try PGT Windguard products. Florida based product. These guys stay on the ever changing codes. They are a Florida company. I use there products in my business. They stand behind there products. If you have any problems do they have service techs in N.C? Here is a link that might be useful: PGT Windows

We are removing our chimney for a kitchen remodel and need to replace the existing water heater, since it currently vents out the chimney. (We have a gas water heater.) The water heater is to be installed in a currently unfinished basement with ten foot ceilings. We have had two plumbers out to scout out the situation and have been told that we cannot install a direct vent because of the height of our ceilings and the limited pre-manufactured piping those heaters come with. So we have been told that we have two options: -Install a Power vent water heater. The two models floated to us were a Bradford White 50 gallon (which the brand gets terrible reviews on consumeraffairs.com) and a Rheem RTgh 84Dvln or Navien NPE 180A (which both had an installation cost of over $3000). My concern with this type of water heater is that it might be loud. We live in a 100 year old house and you can hear everything. -Install an energy efficient electric, probably with a 50 gallon tank over tankless. A third plumber preferred to do this over the gas power vents, though did not specify why he preferred electric to gas. While the overall install might be somewhat cheaper, we would have to have an electrician come out to install a line, and it would cause our monthly energy bill to increase, probably roughly $50 a month, whereas the gas bill would probably decrease only $6. (We live in the PNW) Here are my questions: Are the power vents loud? Of these two options, what have you installed and been happy with? We would like to upgrade for energy efficiency, and are willing to spend the money to do so, but do not want a product that's going to last a shorter length of time (that's what we were told when we upgraded to a 98% efficient gas furnace; it cost more and our HVAC guy said it would last prob 10 years). Thank you much for any advice you can give me...

The best is none. Deicers have been a fav on web sites for the past few years but most ponds were fine without them for thousands of years before that and I suspect they'll be fine for thousands of years after the web and humans are gone. Gas exchange can be a problem, but so can cooling your water. An iced over in ground pond will have water at the bottom of 39F because that's the heaviest water. Water colder than 39F rises (warmer water doesn't always rise). But if you do anything to disturb this natural wonder the water will mix and all the water in the pond can be lower than 39F...even going below 32F (unlikely, but possible). Fish can survive in super cold water...for some period. Fish can survive in water with poor gas exchange...for some period. The question is which is the bigger risk for you? I've seen ponders in Sweden and Finland have gas exchange problems because their ponds ice over and stay iced over for really long periods. But even many of them don't use deicers. Instead they make sure the pond is clean before ice over. Rotting organic material causes the real gas exchange issue. O2 and CO2 are not the issue. Most ponds in the US for example ice over for short periods of time, maybe a month at a time before a warm spell melts everything. I kept ponds for years in upstate NY and we had periods where it didn't get above zero F for a few weeks. But then it's warm up and melted everything. IMO lower water temp is normally the bigger threat. Gas exchange is a threat but way over hyped online. I come to this conclusion just by looking at the millions of ponds in the world which ice over and the fish live. On the other hand dropping the water temp to 33-38F just can't be a good thing for fish. Most do survive deicers but lots don't. I've read cases of deicers breaking and electrocuting fish or catching fire and putting toxic chemicals into the water. And then many cases of fish dying but the owner saying it was because they didn't have a big enough deicer...and never ever taking a single water temp reading. My personal fav is when they say they had a bad cold spell and the deicer couldn't keep up and the pond froze over for a few days which killed all the fish. Every other pond on the planet can freeze over for months and be OK but not this pond. The concept of -30F air being pumped through the pond water driving the water temp down to maybe below 32F...no, that could be what killed the fish. Scaring people is more entertaining and many people do like to buy stuff (even while complaining the whole way) for their pond and "fixing" nature because they want to feel smarter or something. Just depends on what aspects of the hobby you enjoy.