AC Hacker,
Thanks for your additional thoughts.
You are right, I meant "Integrate-it-yourself" not build-from-scratch.
I am in Northern NJ, where Outside temp is 21' now.
I am paying attention to the the thermal envelope.
The current house has cellulose.
I replaced all the 1st floor windows - not 3pane, but good ones.
This week, a door was added between foyer and mudroom,
and a window upstairs that was installed wrong was replaced.
(that's eligible for 30% back :-)
My friend is getting a demo of a thermal imaging camera,
commercial grade. He thinks that's even more effective
than a blower test.
Meanwhile, the contractor found the old oil tank.
I thought it had been removed, but now I see the fine print
says it was decommissioned. Oh Well, NOW it has been
removed. He may have to stop work for the EPA et al
to come out here, in which case I can do a few more test
drilling, (but now I am 10' below grade:-)
The Contractor asked the Excavator man if he would be
interested in helping me with the loops, and he was
interested. I mean Intere$ted.
I need to review the Heat Loss/Gain info I have
on my house.
My assumption is that my current boiler might work
as a backup. In fact, we could wire it as a backup
heat source for the ground loop. Not very efficient,
but emergency heat in the winter is....good to have.
(A/C failure in the summer is not usually an emergency.)
Thanks
Seth
|