With an 8 year-old system, I would replace the compressor. But not for $2500. Get more quotes on replacing the compressor. Once you replace the condenser with a new 13 SEER, using the old coil may be a problem because its smaller than a matching coil. It also depends on how often you use your a/c. Are you in Miami or Chicago, big difference. Good luck.

Call a different guy. Building codes? I did 3 homes (2 rentals)( and a lot of research..months in fact. I ended up with Trane XR13 matched systems in 2 homes. Ten different bids and it's all about the install. HVAC guys can be very helpful, but you have to do some homework and ask the right questions.

So yesterday buddy comes over to look over things with the a/c system and I think we've got things nailed down properly now. The superheat for the given ambient temperature and heat loading from the indoor coil was way off (5F) vs. the 14-15F that it was supposed to be so he had to remove some of the refrigerant (I was quite surprised how little he had to remove to get the superheat up) and we even went as far as measuring the furnace's CFM flow rating using a differential manometer. I'm pushing roughly 1000CFM across a 2 ton coil so which is a tad bit on the high side but my colleauge says it's a margin of safety for the a/c to not freeze over as we have relatively little humidity in the air would means that on the cooler days we wouldn't be heat loading the coil enough which could lead to freeze up. I personally would like to try running my furnace on the lowest speed to get the 855 CFM but I'm not sure how that will affect the superheat. Presumably I would imagine that if a system is charged properly using the superheat method for fixed orifice systems that blower speed shouldn't dramatically impact the superheat values to the point where they're completely out of whack. I would guess that superheat would rise but isn't that sort of a given? I mean hotter days for example would increase loading so therefore superheat should rise no? For the record the pressure reading on the manometer with the furnace on medium low with a 3M 1500 series filter installed has a -0.44 in wg static pressure difference. With no filter the static pressure diff changes to -0.55. Humidity was still somewhat of an issue yesterday night when it was raining but it was quite cool outside. I had to drop the tstat to 21C to force start the a/c on but after just 20 minutes the house was nice and dry and less stuffy. Just for the sake of my understanding does TXV technically do any better or worse job of temperature/humidity control over a fixed orifice system IF both systems were installed properly and charged to near perfection? I have a friend that is looking to install a/c and his contractor insists on having TXV and says that fixed orifice is evil and should never be used. I find that rather extreme to make a claim like that. I've tried to do my own research online and although it's a given that TXV is the way to go I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it will better protect the compressor from liquid flooding + it's more forgiving for techs that do an incorrect charge on the system - critical charge isn't nearly as important on a TXV system vs. fixed orifice. Thanks,

Sorry the furnace had two numbers on a sticker attached to the side. The first is TUH2B080A9V3VAB the second is 9391NGP1G. All of the units quoted are 3 tons. The manual J came back for a three and a half but all three said that the current ductwork would not support the larger unit. Also, they all asked how comfortably the house heated and cooled. My lot has a lot of trees and I feel like the house was very comfortable both in the winter and summer. My highest electrical bill during the summer is usually around $220. So based on my input and the fact that there would need to be major ductwork they all felt comfortable keeping a three ton unit. Let me know if you need anything else or if those are not the right numbers. I am about as ignorant as it comes where HVAC is concerned. Thank you