Yes, I meant 90% high efficiency furnaces not btu. oops, big difference. The OP states she lives in Northern Virginia, as do I. I checked the final versions and Virginia falls in the 80% recommended AFUE efficiency for both heat and air conditioning. Check page 60 on link below, look at small ** which lists southern states. It's only 2012, so 80% efficiency is ok now, and I guess I'm reading in VA will be for a bit. Wonder what the price difference is between weatherized HVAC units (typically fit for weather or outdoors) and non-weatherized units (like most have inside their house/garage/crawl. Still, my question is: don't 90% efficient furnaces require PVC direct to outside? How is every homeowner possibly going to be able to comply with that (northern states are listed on page 60 as *)? And who says an 80% two stage system is less efficient than a 90% single stage anyway? OP-please let me know if you'd like names of the local HVAC companies I have used. Here is a link that might be useful: final version dept of energy new HVAC regs

Thanks Tiger, Harlemhvac electricity is 12 C / kWH (worksheet matches bill) Natural Gas is $1.70 / thrm (Carrier worksheet - my actual bill shows is a bit lower $1.3 /thrm) The Carrier worksheet shows breakeven temp for HP as 37F. I did ask about the lineset - R-11 flush is what was recommended. The Carrier person also remarked about the 'more than adequate' and 'good' duct work (they will do some tests - sorry too technical for me - trying to catch up as fast as i can) The Trane quote does include 1 Honeywell media air cleaner and 1 AA700 humidifier thrown in (included in cost). Upstairs with regular filters - was saving me from going to the attic (I guess yearly maint would be time to change filter- so I will get media filters for both zones) The furnace mdl number is indeed TUD.. (just reread the scribble) - thanks Tiger: I did go over some of your numerous posts and saw that you singularly do not like the Trane XL16is and also the Carrier HP would not have the 'electronic demand defrost". I have asked the Trane dealer for the coil mdl numbers. They are a bit backed up as Virgina has a $1500 discount per system (no limit per household) going on- to be redeemed within 30 days of reserving it. Hope to get the mdl numbers tomorrow. Will also be getting three more options from another visit by another dealer today. Will get that tomorrow hopefully. 1 Some combination of Comfort + Infinity 2 All Infinity (so 2nd all Infinity quote) 3 All Lennox system thank you guys for all your posts on this forum (reading a lot since I discovered this yesterday) and helping me specifically

Ethiojazz your main factor when it comes to tile/coping this time of the year is going to be freezing temps. If the mortar is wet and it freezes overnight, the water in the mix will freeze, creating many little voids in the mortar - which can potentially lead to problems down the road. But - there are a couple "tricks of the trade" that can be applied here to prevent this from happening. In addition, temps in the area are kind of jumping around (i.e. one night it's freezing, next night it isn't). So there is still time ... On the other hand, the only real "damage" done if you wait is just in scheduling. If you're having a deck done, 99% of the time you'll need the tile/coping installed first. So this would hold up decking progress. If you're doing a regular concrete deck ... obviously this would not be much of a hold up. Now, if you're doing flagstone, or pavers ... yeah, you'll lose some time.

How crazy was that? I've lived in NoVa nearly 40 years and never experienced that before :) I'm working with Andrea Rexrode of Kitchen Intuition - 540-347-3871. She's fantastic! She is actually located out in Warrenton, but it wasn't that bad of a drive. Most importantly, she's very customer oriented, reasonably priced and soooo talented/creative! I am going back out to finalize the colors, etc, but everything else has been via email. HTH - good luck!