The next task was to get the heating system fixed. The house had always been drafty and cold (to me, anyway). The EWEB bills sometimes went up to $600/mo... so the heating system was incredibly inefficient. One day I happened to see a Science channel program about Global Warming, and I learned that while the cars we drive are important, the way we heat our homes is often the most important thing to look at as we each examine our "carbon footprint"... so I wanted to get an efficient system going for a variety of reasons!
First, I invited EWEB to come and evaluate the situation. They, first in a long line of "experts," looked at the monster heater in the basement and wondered why/how in the world that ever happened. They pointed out that the system was incredibly inefficient (oh, really?) because the heat was having to travel all the way up the stairs from the basement, to reach the thermostat in the living room... so the basement was super-toasty, and the rest was (we knew this already) drafty, cold, expensive. They said that a heat pump system with ducting would be uber expensive and not worthwhile, and recommended "zoning"...
I got some quotes, from two companies -- one was going to put electric heaters in all the rooms, with separate thermostats; another was willing to do that, but not really (he really wanted to do geo-thermal heating). It was difficult to get either company to send me an actual quote.
So... I finally got a couple of recommendations, called the Contractor's Board to check them both out, and invited "Home Comfort" and "Marshalls." Somewhere, in the midst of things, I got the idea that GAS was an option, and a good one (vs. electric, so of course EWEB didn't mention it). Both companies gave me quotes for a gas furnace, ducted through the house, but Marshall's also proposed a zonal system using gas. Since it seemed to meet lots of goals at once, I agreed to it.
Dec. 16, when Marshall's came to do the work, blahblahblah (Mary to complete story at a later date! Moving on to the SUCCESSFUL ventures, for now!!)
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