YYour systems need fresh air to be efficient. If units blowing up a tree do not need to block air flow or it with return back to the system MFG rule of thumbs if units is 36" tall at less 36" from ANY plants ( but being a service tech. We love dirty unit and lack for air flow "SERVICES CALL" OF DIE SYSTEMS. UNIT THAT CANNOT GET FRESH AIR TAKE AWAY EFFICIENT. COST YOU MORE MONEY ON YOUR LIGHT BILL. TREE SHADING UNITS MEAN ON RAIN TO HELP CLEAN THE COILS. COVER UNIT NO ROOM TO WORK ON OR TO WASH THIS UNIT WILL PUMP THE OIL OUT OF THE COMPRESSOR :) MONEY :) TO MAKE. PS IF NEW SYSTEM THIS WILL VOID ANY MFG WARRANTY.

Tracey - some points of reference for out local climate/economy Nobody uses anything but flex duct at R8(code in attic and used elsewhere for simplicity). Our original HVAC budget was $13 and we spent $20. One contractor was $30 for metal ducts. Original was Seer 13 with no frills. We got Seer 15/16 Heat pump with gas backup down/electric up. Variable speed. 2 stage. Zoning. Total of 7 tons - 4 down, 3 up Your specs are typical in that they are not very informative. They don't give size - usually what they'll do is say that they can maintain 20 degrees cooler than outside and ?? degrees warmer. If you have the $$, seer 15 is generally worth it. I think dual fuel (ie gas and HP) is worth it. Variable speed and 2 stage are more comfort items - worth it if they are worth it to you (the other 2 are worth it in $$ saved). If you have the land and the $$, geothermal is worth considering. To throws numbers around, I suspect we would have spent $40 for geo - down to $27 after tax credit. If you have land, the geo should be less - perhaps down to $20 after tax credit. You can then not have gas, longer life of Pumps, quieter operation, no external pieces and of course energy savings. Geothermal is the one of the few options for tax credits on new construction. In my situation, the money saved was not worth it in just $$$. Lastly - there are a few items for our climate worth mentioning (forgive me if I have done this before). R-40 in the attic cost me $200 and reportedly saves $50 a year (code is r-30). Radiant barrier in the attic gave similar numbers. Energy star certification cost me $850 (or so) but saves me 5% on gas and electricity for life (Progress Energy and PSNC) - payback about 8 years. The extra insulating they do with energy star (cost hard to figure) all makes a ton of sense - mostly using foam around windows and doors - which I think cost $200. They also install backing behind tubs/soffits/on attic walls - that is hard to figure cost of since it went to the framers

Thanks, klem1. I raised my concerns regarding noise with the sales guy when he came out to make a proposal and then with the installer the day it was going to be installed. Each time I was assured that this unit would be much quieter than my old one. Within a couple of days of installation in November, I contacted the installer to complain. After doing some exploration, they proposed ordering a Trane soundblanket and said that it should make a difference. The soundblanket took almost two months to get installed (late December), and didn't make a discernible difference. After I complained that the soundblanket didn't help, they came out last week. During that visit, they said that since the unit appears to comply with Trane's reported noise ratings on Trane's website - although with my son's window open, it pretty much hits the reported 74dbs using an iphone app (it's actually louder above the unit than next to it) - they can't replace it under warranty etc. and they can't resell it as new equipment so there's not much they can do. They have offered to move the unit to my driveway, but that is about 25' from its current location, would take up a fair amount of space in the driveway, and runs the risk of theft etc. unless I build a fence around it. Any ideas of how to convince the installers to try another unit? Thanks so much in advance.

I wanted to go back over some issues I found with my energy audit and on my own with my 'old' builders grade system on my 06 house. The system was a 3.5ton ICP/Tempstar 13 seer 8hspf on 1750 sqft with basement that in the summer could not maintain temp and any sunny day that was over 75 the system would run seemingly forever and struggled to maintain the inside temp in the heat of summer. A digital CFM hood calculated return air/supply air at every register and the auditor checked the recessed lights individually with this also which I will get into later. I had SO much leakage on a system that should have been pulling @1300cfm total on the return grills and had less than 200cfm measured at the grills TOTAL! I had another stupid low number on the supply vents. It was fairly noticeable without poking around that the connections were leaky but after getting out and looking I found 1" gaps on the trunk connections and other assorted leakage areas. The low return side still did not make sense to me or the auditor until I on my own pulled the grills and on some took downward pictures with my camera phone. The pieces they used to block from pulling air from the attic had huge gaps and worse yet the opening in the floor cavity was only 4-6" long when it should have been opened at least close to the full stud area approx 14" wide. After looking at the air leakage areas from the basement every hole for a wire or pipe was huge and the plumbing areas for the tubs and showers were cut completely open with gaping accesses into the shower pan and tub pans. The unit was pulling air from the attic and basement more than the house itself. The return air temp going into the coil for the unit to cool and send into the house was over 5 degrees warmer than the inside house temp which should be within a degree of house temp if possible. I rebuilt all of the returns and opened up the accesses so the air could flow freely down towards the basement and sealed everything up and brushed everything down with mastic and this made a huge difference in noise and comfort when your not trying to cool and dehumidify all the air except the air in the house and the system was maintaining. **SMALL LEAKS---BIG DEAL WhO CARES?--** Here is a biggie to keep in mind through your adventure. My recessed lights were leaking 4-7cfm which who cares big deal right.... I thought... and was corrected by the auditor. Time for Math Scare 101 I have 14 recessed lights and say each one only leaks on average 4cfm. 56 cubic feet per minute 3360cf in an hour 80,640 cubic feet per DAY. I still attempted to shrug this huge number saying that with different wind conditions could affect the flow and he made a good point. Even if the average is half that is huge when you can cut it almost to zero yourself with little effort. I still have the attic sealing to do but have been putting it off because I have R19 rolled out on top of cellulose and its going to be a nasty job even if the payback will be huge I havent jumped up there yet. I have since upgraded the old system to a 15 seer 10.5hspf Ruud matched system with demand defrost,txv and staged heat strips but DROPPED the tonnage to 3tons and the strips from 20kw to 15kw and have not sealed and caulked the attic penetrations and it still works great in comparison. It is easily possible on many homes to caulk foam and mastic your way to a smaller system. I started my journey after a horrible bill and thinking I had an undersized system and caulked and sealed things down the point I was able to downsize even more.