mcohen
New member
We just finished our home addition (finished is a flexible term, we'll be decorating and finishing out rooms for years to come). We weighed and debated many of the same decisions you are. We went with a geothermal heating and cooling system which is incredible expensive to install but is the cheapest system to run (it also lasts a long time with little maintenance). It was hard to justify the 10 years it will take to pay off the system until I looked at adding the cost to the mortgage. When I did, I found the additional cost to finance the system is less than the monthly savings the system provides. In other words, we get a small savings each month from the very start.I've gone back and forth on all of these details. The bottom line is all of the "save the world, save a dollar" options, smart though they may be, are just too expensive. We can't afford them now and hoping for a pay off a decade or more down the road just isn't reasonable for us. Some like the insulation are significantly more expensive. Something like solar is an audacious luxury that would take that much longer to pencil out in our area.
As mentioned, with the framing exposed now is a good time to add anything you think you might want or need in the future. With wireless systems coming out for every gadget, I didn't add the expense of trying to "future proof" the house with every kind of wiring to every room. Instead, I installed plastic flexible conduit myself with only the wiring I needed today. I can always pull out or add wiring later if something new is needed in the future. I also installed a central vac system. If you've every worked with plumbing pipe, running the thin-walled PVC for a vac is easy to do yourself. The total cost for the parts is about what you'd pay for good regular vacuum.
Michael