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To: LemonHead who wrote (16681)	8/15/2001 5:24:48 AM
From: Bernie Goldberg	Respond to of 18928

Congratulations. I'm sure you and the Mrs. will be happy in your new home. I remember how Ann and I felt just before we moved into our new home 25 years ago. Not too many things can match that. Bernie

To: LemonHead who wrote (16681)	8/15/2001 8:45:37 AM
From: OldAIMGuy	Respond to of 18928

Hi Keith, It's amazing what we'll do with our private "caves." Our last house was a new one with lots of insulation and electric baseboard heat. That can be okay even in the North if the rate on electricity isn't too bad. However a few years later electric rates started to climb. I decided - being a combustion type of guy - to convert that house to hot water baseboard heating. I was in the midst of developing a very high efficiency hot water heater and this gave me a chance to test it as the source of heat for the house. Well, 80' of fin and 300' of copper tubing later I had a house that was ready for the boiler to be installed. I first installed my own R&D prototype heater and used it while I gathered data. It worked just like it was supposed to! Then I bought a commercial boiler and installed it. To fully understand this story one has to know that I'd quit my job to be a private investor at this same time. Jane wasn't used to having me around the house. So, in the August heat, I started tearing the house apart and making messes everywhere! Three weeks with a brace and bit, several cans of flux, spools of solder, tubing cutters, flow control valves, hammer and nails and things were "functional" well before the Heating Season started. Then I started the cosmetic clean-up! That took more time than I anticipated! Jane sure is a trusting soul!! It was just about as I finished up the project that Jane decided I needed to have an "office" outside the home! :-) Now, here I am 15 years smarter and what are we doing? Tearing up our current house with two 47 year old bathrooms being replaced and a new one being added. That plus expanding the living space to include the area above the garage. Well, at least this time I was smart enough to hire people to do the work. It's been the design this time around that's been my fun. The contractors won't even let me carry a tape measure around, let alone a hammer!! Just as well...... Phase I, the area above the garage is almost finished. Phase II (tear out the one bathroom and rebuild) starts any day now. Phase III (tear out second old bathroom, rebuild and add new 2nd floor bathroom) won't start until Phase II is done. Then there's Phase III.v which is the sauna that I've designed for the back of the house. Again the designing is where I'm getting the pleasure. It's going to have as its heat source our home's hot water boiler. I've designed it as a "dry sauna" and am creating a false wall, open at both the top and bottom with lots of fin tubing in it, that acts as a giant heat exchanger. A timer through a relay will control the spare zone pump off our existing boiler to heat the sauna. With 180-200F water, it should come to temperature quickly. Interior will be Western Red Cedar walls and benches, lighting will be indirect from under the benches. Two insulated windows look out of it south and west. This gives us a view of our entire back yard all the way to the ravine so we can watch the critters when the snow flies in the winter as we bake our aging bones. Other than that it's been a restful summer! After this project Jane may ask me to move my office out of State! :-) Best regards, Tom