You need to get involved with a quality dealer and forget the GC. Dealer needs to follow up on the matching R-22 evap coil from Frigidaire. It seems this is the way to go assuming you have no performance issues with the AC. Do you even know? Third party evap coils are available in the marketplace. I don't care for them but you already have a mismatched system of different brands. If for some reason existing Frigidare condenser can not be used, then I would go for a Bryant 13 SEER condenser with matching coil. You can't go with a 4 ton condenser because your blower motor on the furnace is only rated up to a 3 1/2 ton. As asked previously, you have good access to attic for moving the furnace? What size living space is your home? Dealer will need to extend or replace existing lineset most likely. That's the way to go. Drop the GC on the HVAC aspect of your home's modification. IMO

>> Hope to hear an update from the original poster of the thread soon as well. Hi, still here. :) Yeah, so far, none of the contractors have proposed a 'mismatched' coil and condenser. One said 5/5, but all the others have been 4/4 so far. No load calcs yet. One contractor said he'd do it if there were a commitment to go with them. So if they commit to dropping their price and changing some of the equip to match better proposals from others, then we may have something.. :) [unfortunately, although they had a polished sales presentation, their bid missed a couple elements with regard to equipment, including the low voltage wiring and the mismatched coil size (width)] I did see that the 4-ton XL15i requires the 7/8" x 3/8", so looks like I'm good. (phew) A contractor on Friday also said I'd need additional wiring to hook up a heat pump outside, so looks like it was missed by the one proposal. I think this has been asked before, but is the TL900 the same as the VisionPRO IAQ? I have two more contractors coming Monday, so after that will hopefully have all the information I need to start discussing it further with 1 or 2 and start negotiating equipment and price details. On related topics: There have been other differences in proposals, with some suggesting/including a replacement condenser pad, some not. I currently have what looks like an interlocking plastic condenser pad. Doesn't appear damaged, although may be slightly out-of-level (will be checking to make sure). Surrounded by bushes that I keep in check, and mulched w/ weeding done when needed. I understand concrete is the best option, but doubt the pads being included in some of the bids are much better than what I have. I'll be doing my own check to confirm what I have would fit the new condenser/heat pump. And, some are including an Electrical Disconnect/Fuse rewiring, some not. There's currently a disconnect (no fuse) connected to a 40amp double pole circuit breaker. One guy told me "that should be enough, but if it isn't and it trips a lot, we'll fix it free of charge" or something to the effect; which I'm not sure whether it's a good deal that he's not trying to sell me something I don't need or a caution flag that he doesn't know if it's sufficient.. The XL15i documentation says "Min Cir Ampacity = 30" and "Max Fuse Size (Amps) = 50", so I'm not sure whether that means the 40amp circuit breaker is sufficient or not.

I'm in the LA area too and I've been trying to replace my broken down 3.5 ton condenser. Unfortunately, I've been stuck doing too much research (analysis paralysis), but I've learned a lot. My house is 1430 sqft, long wall faces east and gets the hot afternoon sun, I'm on a raised foundation with crawl space, insulation R25 in attic, hardwood floors, no insulation in walls, double pane windows, built in 1952, 3 bd, 2 ba, etc. You need to get someone to do a load calculation (Manual J) which takes into account your insulation in the attic, insulation in the walls, insulation in the crawl space, sqft of windows facing east/west/south/north, sqft walls facing east/west, sqft of doors, type of floor, volume of your house, sqft of house, temperatures that you want to set inside the house in winter/summer, climate in your area, number of people in house, number of appliances, etc. All these factors determine your cooling needs in the summer and your heating needs in the winter. Or you can learn how to do this yourself at http://loadcalc.net I would guesstimate that no insulation in the attic, no insulation on the walls, no insulation under the floor, and drafty old windows probably raises your cooling needs to close to 5-tons. A 5-ton condenser and matching furnace are a lot more expensive to run/operate than a 3-ton system. I ran the numbers on my house and my cooling needs were a little over 4 tons without attic insulation and without wall insulation. I have R25 in the attic and I'm adding R15 wall insulation as I type this message and my cooling needs went down to a little under 3 tons (at 35.5k BTUs). So, my wall and attic insulation reduced my cooling needs by 1-ton (a little over 12k BTUs). I think the attic insulation makes more of a difference than the the wall insulation, so I recommend that you get that done asap. It really helps. Now, getting back to equipment. I've been following the advice on this forum not to get low end equipment. This advice has taken me in a two month quest for a reasonably priced mid-level equipment from a good company (Trane, American Standard, Rheem), but I'm having trouble finding it. The best quotes I've gotten are for Amana and Lennox. The most expensive are for Trane, AS, and Rheem. Goodman is very popular probably because of the price. They have good warranty, but the equipment is not well regarded in this forum. Almost everyone says it's better to get a great installer with low end equipment than high-end reliable equipment with a bad installer. I think I met two really bad installers and two good installers. It's a feeling, but it's hard to know for sure. Some dealers send their salesperson to talk to you, so you never meet the installer. One way to protect yourself is to get a permit. In my area, this ensures that the refrigerant level is checked to make sure it's appropriate for your system. That's all the permit does in my city. Another way to protect yourself is to qualify for rebates. The rebates from So Cal Edison require an outside inspector to inspect/test your ducts and install. The problem with rebates is that it costs more money to pay for these tests and the installers/dealers build in a markup when you try to get rebates. I got quotes with rebates from Lennox and Rheem and both were in the $9500 range with the possibility to get about $2700 in rebates. It's scary trying to qualify for the rebates because you might have to pay additional fees in repairs in order to meet the requirements of the rebates. Now that I've written a book on this topic, my advice to you is to get a load calculation done and see what your heating and cooling needs are. Figure out if it's worth getting the attic insulation to cut down on equipment size. Remember that it's more expensive to run a 5-ton system than a 3-ton system of equal SEER. Oversized equipment might cause your system to short-cycle which may be bad for the equipment. In So Cal, we really need the a/c and not the heater so much. So, matching a 5-ton a/c condenser with the right 5-ton 2000 CFM blower in a furnace will result in an oversized furnace. Your heating needs are probably 3-tons 36K BTUs without insulation, but you are putting a 100K BTU furnace in order to get the matching blower in the furnace to blow the cooling air at the right speed. Also, 3-ton equipment is cheaper than 5-ton equipment. So, the savings in equipment price and the operational savings can probably pay for your attic insulation. I'm paying $1600 to insulate all my outside walls. I insulated my attic myself using encapsulated batts from Home Depot. I might have to pay a little extra fill in some of the attic areas that I didn't do such a great job on. I'm talking to the wall insulators about doing this extra work for a small fee. I want them to blow some loose cellulose into those areas that need it. Okay, you might not have finished reading all this, but see my other posts on price and equipment. I researched 3-ton systems.

Tax credited payne with the condenser above AHRI 3385007 using payne fan coil PF4MNA037T00 AHRI 3384914 using payne fan coil PF4MNA043T00 If a dealer also sells Bryant/Carrier Then your choices expand with customization, electronic controlled, to more quiet operation, protection of the condensing coil with metal coil guard that have special powder coated paint, to better quality parts. To special warranty of 1yr 100% guarantee. Think of a car, Some are budget cars some are work horse cars and some are luxury cars. for tax credited systems Budget level systems like Payne go up to the tax credited level where bryant and carrier go beyond with customized features. for me as a dealer, what is the absolute most least expensive system that I would buy and willing to sell is the payne Is it my first choice, no But money is tight for some and this economy stinks for $400 more I can put you in a bryant system for $700 I can put you in a nicer bryant system with humidity control for $1200 more I can put you in the best bryant single speed condenser with electronic computer controlled system. Is the ultimate bryant single speed evolution controlled system worth the extra $1200? yes