Except that many of the boors who responded with profanity to my well-intentioned question specifically said that they have no intention of "wasting" their time on helping homeowners for free. Pretty contrary to the spirit of any other newsgroup I have frequented... Again, no one has any obligation to provide advice -- free or otherwise; however, as supposed human beings on a public forum, I think everybody has the obligation to treat posters civilily and without crude profanity, particularly if the poster has done nothing egregious to justify such a welcome.
Be careful if you do not possess some xeroxed piece of paper from a 2-bit technical school, the alt.hvac police will attack you for doing an "illegal"/"dangerous"/"cheap" etc. install...
But all kidding aside, you seem to be a decent person -- if only more of the newsgroup regulars had your attitude...