I would like to thank everyone for there thoughtful comments. Today another Senior Tech stopped by (the sales rep also a former tech arranged this for us) He walked in and immediately I envisioned Sherlock Holmes just by his demeanor. We went into the basement and unlike the previous 4 or 5 techs who spent hours on this rather then opening up the oil furnace He simply looked at the large pipe that extends from the furnace to the chimney. Then like Sherlock he rubbed his ring finger over it near the furnace. He smiled & said I know what the problem is. (I thought he was joking) After showing me a little dust. He pointed out a little discoloration on the pipe . He then said occasionally the heat is going in the wrong direction.. To prove this he connected a Draft Meter. When the system is on (flame on) its negative but when the fan goes on it is positive (looking for air) We went up stairs and once again he smiled. We have chairs and stuff in front of the outgoing vents and he moved them a few inches & then said problem solved. He said the newer powerful systems simply need to circulate more air. both in and out. We went back to the basement with his Draft Regulator and it tested perfect. IT only took this gentleman less then a minute to resolve a problem that we had since November or December -A problem that most of the other techs downplayed etc The chairs and stuff were there with the old less powerful furnace without any issues. . again thanks for your input.

Does you blower come on from a fan switch, or does it came on from a electronic board. Sounds like your fan is not coming on soon enough or your limit is turning you burner of to soon. Later paulbm

Thanks for the feedback (hope others will reply with more)! OK, I guess that sounds right not to state 'furnace' for electric. We really want to eliminate oil even if it is minimally cost-effective or costs a little more. There would be some peace-of-mind since the furnace is 15yrs old and the tank (and line) is underground and likely 60yrs old. Also skyrocketed price of oil will probably stay or go higher. With all my research thus far I ruled out 13 SEER or lower. One upcoming bid is 14.5 SEER. We will not do propane, so it is heat pump with current oil or new electric. And wouldn't any heating fail with an electrical outage since the fan needs electricity (unless one has a generator)? Also, any advice on recommended brands? I think one guy is going to offer York and Goodman and the other guy Carrier (but there are so many brands out there and I am finding a LOT of unsatisfied reviews).

First of all, electric, propane, and coil costs vary across the country. You need to research the rates for each fuel in your area and make a decision accordingly. I will warn you to watch out for propane though; that stuff is pricey and may end up costing you more to run than oil. The equipment sizing in your quotes is indeed all over the map and you need to look into that. The way Manual J load calculations work is: garbage in, garbage out. Assuming all the contractors actually did Manual J and not some other load calc, the only explanation for the different sizing is that they used different values. I would ask to see the calculations so you might be able to see why they vary so much. 40K Trane (TUH1B040), 60K Trane (TUH1B060), 80K Bryant, 85K Thermo Pride, 100K Thermo Pride, what a mess. Actually the 100K Thermo Pride and 80K Bryant will be similar in output because of the differences in efficiency, but the other quotes are all over the place. As for one Trane contractor saying the furnace needed to be moved to the attic and the other didn't, that could be because of physical size differences between the 040 and 060 models quoted? Not really sure what's going on there though. For the heat pump quotes, you are seeing air handlers quoted larger than the outdoor units because the efficiency of the system is higher when you do that. You do sacrifice some dehumidification in the summer, though. Variable speed air handlers are more efficient than multi speed models, and are better at dehumidification. I would strongly recommend going with one if you can swing it. Comfort R is included on all Trane variable speed air handlers and is just a marketing term for the ramping profile on the blower for better dehumidification. It is an OK way to dehumidify, but a better way in my opinion is dehumidify on demand. This lets you set a humidity setpoint, and the system will slow down the variable speed blower when you go above it. You do not need to use a Trane thermostat for any of the system's functions to work. The Trane 803 is a rebranded Honeywell VisionPro 8000 which can only overcool to dehumidify, which is not optimal at all. I would want at least the VisionPro IAQ on any of the systems you were quoted with a variable speed blower. That way you will be fully taking advantage of the equipment you paid for. Heat strip sizing is covered in the Manual J load calculation. They say to size it to 80% of the whole heat load for the home. Some contractors prefer to size to cover 100% in cases where the heat pump fails and you need it to meet the whole load. I'm sure the companies would be happy to give you prices without the maintenance plan. That would be the first place I would go to cut costs. I am not really a Trane guy so can't comment on issues (or lack thereof) with the TAM7 Hyperion air handlers. Hopefully someone else here who works with Trane more can answer that. This post was edited by hvtech42 on Tue, Oct 14, 14 at 15:25