You've probably never been in a home with properly sized ductwork. Don't feel bad, it's estimated that as much as 3/4 of the heating and cooling systems in the US are oversized. 2 stage and modulating furnaces are better, but I've lived in a home with both, and both can be very comfortable and the single stage equipment doesn't make it feel more dry that I can tell. BUt you are correct, multistage cna reduce the sense of dryness you might get with a less than ideal system. THe RH of hot air is lower than cooler air, but cool air can make things feel drafty. That's why radiant heat is popular. You essentially have very, very low air velocities and much of the heat energy is indirect infrared heat which make you feel warmer, similar to direct sunlight. Keep in mind too, that unless you have an outdoor rest control for hte boiler or to sped up or slow the circulator, most hydronic air handlers are single stage for heating. So the heat is no different than a furnace. Worse, as you reduce BTU's to the coil, the airflow speed is usually ocnstant, so air temps get cooler. My point being, that a properly designed and installed furnace won;t make it feel dry even if single stage. But yes, oversized furnaces and those with restricted airflow can. Vairble capacity will always make the system more comfortable, but it will cost more. Radiant heat overall is superior, but the installed cost is much, much higher. That's why it fell out of favor. Same reason drywall took over the market and plaster disapeared. ITs' primarily a matter of cost. It's also why stone and brick homes aren't built anymore and concrete homes are the minority.

if a shower is taken for 30 minutes.thay would be the 75 gallons of water.. sounds right but its not..the heater will actually give you only about 50-60 gallons of not water because the tank is filling with cold as you use the hot it is also mixing so..if you take a shower for 30 minutes you will deplete the heater, then it needs to reheat the water. but the next person jumps in the shower. he will get cooler hot water and less of it..it all boils down to the length of showers and how lon inbetween them. when your house was built a misunderstand of a water heater system happenrd instead of a huge heater seperat heaters for different baths would have been the way to go this is also the reason of your high gas bill you have a hugh vessal of water, the gas has got to keep that vessal at the temp you want it..every time you use hot water the heater has got to come on and heat up the water to thee desired temp. a larger vessal will cost more than a smaller vessal to keep warm.. my opinon..water heater to big...need to split the system upinto 2 systems,and..with the price of fuel.the way it is now. i suggest to switch to 2 50 gallon electric heaters AND the heaters get put on timmers. if you both work heater off 9pm-5am on 5am-8am off8am-4pm something like that the ages of your children also have a big factor in all of this. teen agers stay in the bathroom or on the phone i never thought i would be telling people to go with elec water heaters. but my fuel price went up ti $4.a gallon a few mths ago. went down..but i think it will go back up

Hi lcottrell, I did notice earlier that you had tested the elements and had replaced both the elements and the thermostat. But you need to really verify, at least, that there is voltage to the elements when there should be and ideally that there is current flowing through the element circuit. A successful current test would rule out a lot of electrical issues. An ohm test on the element only tells you that the element is good-- it doesn't tell you if it is getting power. Unless I am forgetting something, there is either an electrical problem, a mechanical problem with the thermostat, or you are using all of the hot water in the tank (which would include a low setting on the thermostat or diminished tank capacity due to lime buildup). If you had serious lime buildup you would have known it when you pulled the bottom element. Less likely but still possible is a tank that has been connected to water supply incorrectly (the cold is connected to the "H" outlet on the top of the tank) or the dip tube is damaged or missing causing cold water to mix with the hot in the tank. Of those two, the improperly connected plumbing doesn't fit your symptoms, but the damaged dip tube does. Since the electrical is the most likely problem, you need to conclusively rule that out before you do anything else. I am sorry if it sounds like I am telling you to recheck something that you have done already-- but if you are stuck, then you need to perform some conclusive tests.

Thanks, I guess my point was more that it would cost less to use in summer, not more, so if you are OK with the cost in the winter, the summer cost probably won't phase you. Since I don't plan to go long without using the IH, I won't have a longer period over which to determine what the minimum cost is of just keeping that water warm if you don't use it much. After this, the cost will go up because it will include the extra electricity required to replace the water used with new heated water. For that reason it will depend a lot on individual use and may not reflect what someone else's cost will be. If anyone is interested, though, I will share that information as well. Wish I had the meter last week when I was making 6 or 8 cups of tea a day. :) I am particularly interested to see how much energy is used in replacing almost an entire tank of hot water like it would if you filled a pot with water to cook pasta. I still think it would be less than the cost of running a stove top for the same length of time, but I don't really know. I will have to see if my interest is maintained enough to play with it and check things like that. It might be fun to remove a cup full of water and check the cost to replace it and then to hook it up to the mw and see what it costs to heat a cup of water that way. Sue