Bob talks with factory representative Chris Hoff and heating contractor Peter Lydon during the installation of a Buderus high-efficiency boiler. They note several features that improve the unit's efficiency, including stainless-steel burner tube, insulated jacket and sophisticated Honeywell controls.

Bob visit the Buderus boiler manufacturing plant with Chris Hoff to see how the house and water heater is made.

Bob meets Jack O'Leary, the plumbing and heating contractor for this remodeling project. They discuss the old heating unit, which was an oil-fired steam system that used radiators throughout the house. The house has doubled in size since adding a new addition, and the old unit can't handle the new load. It was too costly to add another steam unit, so they decided to go with an oil-fired boiler. This works well for the homeowner, since oil is cheaper than electric, and gas isn't available in the area.

Bob visits with Mark Lundquist of Burnham Hydronics to check out the boiler for the hot-water heating system being installed in the Mashpee, Massachusetts, affordable homes. This Burnham Spirit model is a medium efficiency, easy-to-maintain, sealed-combustion unit. Since it is sealed combustion, it pulls the air it needs directly from the outdoors and vents to the exterior without the use of a chimney or flue. This enables a homeowner to close off the space surrounding the boiler without worrying about available combustion air for the furnace. This model uses standard parts, so any repairs will be fast and easy. The boiler is made of cast iron and has a 25 to 40 year life expectancy. It operates at 84 percent efficiency, so the homeowner will use energy dollars wisely. Charlie Delvecchio of Cape Plumbing breaks out the cost of the boiler to about $1,500 and the baseboard tubing for another $6,000, for a total cost of $7,500 for installation of the home heating system. The domestic hot-water tank is linked to the heating system as hot water from the boiler passes through a coil in the insulated hot-water tank, warming the household water through energy exchange. If the water is maintained at the proper temperature just from this passive exchange, the boiler will never be called upon to heat water for faucets and showers.

…more tolerant of cold sowing and warm weather. We like edible pods like the big old fashioned Mammoth Melting Sugar Edible-pod, or giant Chinese Snow Pea. Good stir-fried. The newer sugar snap varieties are not as tall, remain stringless longer and…

…much better on counters! Alkemi comes in enough color options to appeal to any design palate and has pretty cool names like Pod and Aegean. Alkemi sells for about $70-80 per square foot and comes in the industry standard and sizes. It can also be sanded…