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Whatever you do, make sure that your house is as tight as you can get it. Do a blower door test before drywall/blueboard goes up. You can catch any air leaks and fix them. They will be your biggest energy loss if you don't. They will also most likely be the cause of any moisture problems you might have. There are programs out there that will pay for the blower door test on the house. I believe one is offered by Energy Star. The way people have been building for the past decades and are still building is just not the way to do it anymore. Think air tight, thermal breaks, lots of insulation, heat recovery unit, smart design, etc. For example I'm putting an addition on my house and we will be right around 3000 square feet when done. If we stick with oil heat load calculations show us at around a 35-40k peak btu load burning max 300 gallons of oil per year. At the moment the house is 1100 sq. ft. and we moved in June 2007. Since then to present we've burned around 1000 gallons of oil. Tons of air leaks, inefficient boiler, no insulation etc. Building science is way ahead of what most builders are doing and what minimum code requires.
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1996 F250 4x4 ext. cab, long bed 5 spd. 3.55ls, Tymar Intake, Tymar 4" downpipe and 4" exhaust. AIC, B&W turnoverball, EBPV brake, tranny temp gauge, boost gauge, and egt gauge. 249k miles and thousands of $$$$ in maintenance and repairs.
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