"How does an electric dry pull a lot of air?" Mike: Of course there's a fan inside the dryer. All clothes dryers, electric or gas, pull a lot of air from the surrounding area, run it past the heater (gas or electric) to heat it, through the drum of wet clothes and out the dryer vent. Regarding the furnace: Anything other than very minor leaks in the return air system on a furnace (which are usually canceled out by minor leaks on supply plenum) are a problem. You can have back drafting of the furnace - far worse than back drafting of the water heater because it's more CO (more btu/hr input) and because that means it's pulling the CO into the return air and circulating it in the house. "I would not trust any contractor to know the local code especially where a mistake could cause a big safety issue"... umm ok. To begin with that's not really the issue - since as I said, the issue is that Lowe's WON'T do the job. But that's really an absurd statement because virtually every job, be it electric, HVAC, Plumbing or even many carpentry jobs depend on the contractor knowing code to do a safe installation. If we can't start with that assumption the building trades would come to a screeching halt. I'm not naive... I do know people make mistakes and/or are unqualified. But the people who do this for a living and have their work regularly inspected by local authorities and who's livelihood is dependent on being able to be licensed, bonded and insured are in a pretty good position to know local code. Besides, killing your customers is a big civil liability, potentially a criminal liability and really bad for business. It's far more likely that the average DIY installer would make a serious safety error. The OP is very aware of the makeup air issue. He's going to point that out to the contractor so it's not overlooked. As far as we know, this has been an acceptable situation up to this point with makeup air grills in the outside wall and floor. Nothing has significantly changed since the original design. A contractor is going to confirm the makeup air situation meets code and then install the heater. He may even inspect the current heater for evidence of backdraft. The real issue is a broad warning in the manufacture's installation instructions that, while is important to bring to installer's attention, is too broad. (again, how near is "near"? Is that 24"? is that in the same room? is that in the same dwelling unit?) Lowe's had no choice about following this prohibition because explicit manufacturers instructions are binding if not counter to local codes. If the instructions said not to install the heater in a room that was painted white, it would be just as binding.

I found this on Sears site. They have a link to an Affinity brochure I have seen nowhere else. It says: "The Affinity 8000 washer uses an internal heater to maintain the optimal temperature in every cycle, from cold wash to the high-heat used in Deep Clean Sanitary Cycle. It maintains constant water temperatures throughout each cycle, maximizing your detergent s cleaning power and giving you cleaner , brighter clothes." It was on the Affinity 7000 page description, so I assume that the heater will work the same on all the heated models. Here is a link that might be useful: Affinity Laundry Brochure (1.23 MB pdf)

Thanks everyone. Well, I have half the room decarpeted... both layers. Yes, the bottom carpet was glued down to the concrete and I now feel I have the right to suggest to people not to ever do that! I followed laxsupermom's suggestion on getting a long handled floor scraper and have been scraping the old black foam carpet backing off the concrete. This is doable, but no fun. What I find I'm left with is a floor that has very little blotches of actual concrete peeking thru amidst the saw tooth swoops of glue and black which will NOT come off unless I go rent a heavy duty floor sander. I've decided it's enough as is! I will have to decide what kind of pad to use under the carpeting. Should I put down plastic or anything? Thanks for all your input. jejvtr, lights should be ok...the ceiling is dropped pretty far from joists.

yes...manufacturer...only said to 'pick a number' to start, when the room gets warm enough turn the knob back until it clicks and shuts off...it should maintain the temp from that point on. I have no idea, nor did they mention, how far the temp must fall before it kicks back on ....from my observation it must be more than 2 degrees. I guess I have to play with it. It does a great job of immediately warming the area but my experience so far is that I have to get up and adjust it as the room gets too cool before it kicks back on...assuming it ever does! I'll have to test that I guess. Further setting it one notch higher...it nerver shuts! That tells me setting '2' is 68 degrees...thats when it consistently shuts off, yet setting 3 is 72+ degrees...not sure how high it has to go to shut off because 72 gets too warm and I always turn it back! I do have a heat supply in the general area from my heat pump...perhaps this is somehow messing with it...I guess I can sut that off.....