There are some really 'fun' and simple ways to convert your music from CD format to hard drives. The way I would do this is AA. Find the best absolutely no cost limit what you can imagine without regard to the time it takes and image absolutly what you want. BB. Consider the absolute minimim .. totally at the edge of giving up on the idea and nearly not doing it.. level of minimal work .. CC. Decide where you lie between those limits. That's a part of the puzzle. One facet from each of us will describe a part of the 'diamond' of idea we all have. They're all different diamond like ideas. Music is easy to play on a computer without loading the computer down. The basics of lots of music at your command for free using Winamp or VLC as the player and free software to convert CD's to hard drive audio is simple. A CD copy shop might do the entire job of 200 CDs for $200 or less. I had a shop once and I would do the job for that price. What woudl happen is all of your CD's would be loaded by hand or machine so the computer can read them and copy their data, music, to the hard drive. Each hard drive can be huge or small. It can be a portable, push into a carrier, where it can be hidden, or locked. These are common $14 items and each hard drive can be slid into the computer from the outside. Each HD can have separate music or one hard drive can have all of your music. At this point you have music available. Now playing it is as simple as choosing which albums or which tracks or if you want to make or download, for free, your own playlists which run , for free on Winamp or VLC. Those players will play a playlist of your music or they will simply play whatever you have on the har drive and they'll play it in any order , all day and night or at various volumes, But the basics is that it's simple and you'll have all your music right at your fingertips with no cost except the computer and some help from your own questions or a professional. copying CD's to hard drive is dumb simple. For $200 you can buy an automatic disc loader for CD copying and let it run for you and then sell it when you're done. Or you can pop in a CD every few minutes and do it yourself by hand. Or pay a CD copy company to do it for you. They have the auto loading device. It can run at night and the entire job might be done in the morning and your hard drive(s) will have all of your music ready to play. The basics are the same no matter if you use an ipod, a computer, or a cell phone. The limits are how closly are you wanting to be involved with the technology. Personally I would want it to play, quietly ni the background without me knowing it was there. Other people get 'ready' to rock and can't wait to program the tracks and make a date of it. This behavior pattern is the 'high and low' of the experience you want to experience back at AA, BB, and CC. Let us know a bit more about you, where you live (big city or not) And what you plan to do with your music.. what does it mean to you? IF it's simply about protecting your investment then an external USB hard drive is the easiest way to handle it but it's also and easy way to break it. Note: You'll want to have at least 1 backup of all of your work. So that means 2 hard drives, full, of music. Not at all expensive or hard to do. But you have to back up. You will need a plan and a good plan because it's a big project , unless someone does it for you, and you don't want to live through it more than one time I'm pretty sure. Good luck. I'll look back on you. Andre

Thanks for all the responses, I'll try to answer as many questions as possible. Tiger: Location is Atlanta, GA a note about the AC units, those are not heat pumps. Ryan: A load calc was not performed but was offered, before contract is signed I'll insit on one to confirm all of the sizing changes. I'll confirm the 5K unit is incorrect. As a starting point (lots of variables at play) we based the sizing on the current systems and their ability to keep up with demand. As a reference our current bills are about 150/mo in winter for gas and 150-200 in summer for elec. The current living space is 2600 sq ft with 8 ft ceilings, system 1 was sized to be able to handle an additional 1000 sq ft basement which will probably be finished in 1-2 years. Anticipation is that when we finish the basement we'll come back to reroute ductwork and zone it from the first floor. My though was to go ahead and get the proper size for the area, so after all is said and done there will be 3600 sq ft of living space. House was built in 86 and has not had any major changes to it so windows are all single pane and can be a bit drafty. I do not expect to replace windows in the future but do plan on sealing the house up more.

We just had a new Rheem 15.5 SEER air conditioner installed in our Cape Coral home on the west coast of Fl. Our home is just a hair under 1800 sq ft, and we upgraded to a 3.5 ton because the home was built with a 2.5 ton builder model that was far too small, and could not cool that much sq footage. The install was around $3500, including increasing the size of the return duct, and adding another supply to provide adequate airflow for the larger system. The contractors we purchased the system from did a manual J, and were quite knowledgeable, and our replacement was completed in one afternoon, the new AC is working beautifully, and now easily cools the home to any desired temp without huge electric bills. I would question the need for a 5 ton and have contractors perform a manual J calculation, I'm definately no expert on HVAC systems, but it seems to me an extra 300 sq ft wouldn't need another 1.5 tons of cooling. Our system is from Rheem's value line of medium efficiency air conditioners, dosent have a lot of bells and whistles, but it does a great job of cooling and also dehumidifies very well for the very budget friendly price. Dave

If the other units showing signs of its age, it may be advisable to replace it at this time if not cost prohibitive. Some dealers may give you better pricing this way. Same thing for the A/C--less work to do it all at once since the space will be open, and cheaper. That's the way I would look at it. Have you been given any pricing, brands, models?