minijay

what area of country do you live?

with today's energy costs only expected to go higher and depending on your electric rate and area of country you live, I think 80% eff gas furnaces are a dinosaur unless paired with a heat pump.

as to your quotes option one. here are my reasons.

1.the Performance 15 is one of the best sgl stg AC models on the market.
2.quote includes the Infinity controller, the best residential stat in the market.
3.Infinity furnace with two stg heating and var speed blower.

If you have a good electric rate, I would change the condenser to the Performance 15 heat pump mdl 24HPA5
or upgrade the furnace to the Infinity 96 Mdl.

IMO

live in the midwest. I do have a quote for a 24HPA / heatpump, however its for $8450 ($8950 before rebate). We are not wanting to invest that much, since we have just completed some remodeling.

I can see why the heat pump is recommended, the dealer showed ~1000 annual savings in fuel cost. FYI we keep our house at 68-70 year round.

minijay

putting price aside(and I know that's difficult),it would be a mistake not to add the HP in place of the AC or upgrade to a 95% eff furnace.

what is electric rate and do you mind saying more specific where you live in midwest and type of winters you normally have?

IMO

You're looking at great equipment. Make sure they size it according to a load calculation. I agree on going with a more efficient heating source if budget allows. Option 1 would be my choice given your options, for the variable-speed blower and the Infinity control mainly.

minijay

you will also require a good 4-5" pleated media filter cabinet for IAQ as well as protection of evap coil and blower...

IMO

What size was your old system? You should be looking to eliminate any pre-existing oversizing. Keep in mind the variable speed blower motor will cost around $1,000 to replace at today's rates (and that's just the part, no labor or incidentals).

I haven't heard of any reliability issues with the ECM motor. I have heard of the boards going out, but those are not as expensive as the motor usually. A 10-year parts and labor warranty would be a good idea for any system. I think the advantages of the v/s blower outweigh the possibility of it failing. PSC motors can fail, too. Perhaps down the road as ECM motors become more common the prices will drop.

we live in St. Louis MO. So the winters here aren't too bad. late dec through march is usualy around the mid 30's but summers we have high temps with high humidity. i don't know our electric rate off the top of my head.

Would a better system be a performace or comfort heat pump and performance 80 furnace? or is having an infinity furnace key here?

minijay

here is a quick synopsis for St Louis climate.

Climate averages for: SAINT LOUIS, MO, 63121
Hot weather Cold weather
Average days per year above 75: 153
Average high temperature: 89.8
Average days per year below 40: 91
Average low temperature: 29.6

To leverage what I believe is a relatively inexpensive electric rate, I would stick with the Infinity 80 gas furnace paired with the Performance 15 Heat Pump. The Performance 15 series is compatible with the Infinity controller while the Comfort series is not.

IMO

We have what you have, except we have the Performance 13 SEER. It works great. We don't have near the heating days you have, but your humidity is worse than ours. Option 1 is awesome at humidity removal as the Infinity t-stat coupled with the VS motor gives 'cool to dehumidify' feature. Keep in mind that an Infinity t-stat is about 350-375 retail alone. I would spring for the optional external temp sensor, to. It connects to the furnace board and the other end is mounted outside in shade and it displays the outside temp on the t-stat.

The Infinity control is in direct digital communication with the furnace/air handler, and picks a blower speed on the fly based on conditions. The ability to run at much lower than normal CFM/ton rates improves the amount of dehumidification relative to the amount of cooling, which reduces the amount of overcooling that is required in the first place.

If the t-stat setpoint is 76 and it needs to cool for dehumidification, the setpoint will keep saying 76, but you may find that the actual room temperature on the display is 74 (two degrees under setpoint) and the compressor is running still. You'll see this most often on rainy humid days when the outside temp is 73-80. In cool to dehumidify operation, it will take room temp below setpoint 3 degrees max, or to 72, whichever comes first. Again, it's awesome!

If the setpoint was below what you had programmed, that's going to be because it was preparing for the next programmed period.

Remember that with an Infinity system the times and temperatures you program are for when you want it to achieve the programmed temperature, not when you want it to start trying to get there.

Tiger:

"The Performance 15 series is compatible with the Infinity controller while the Comfort series is not."

By "compatible," you mean not having the Infinity diagnostics, correct? It is my understanding that you can use any outdoor unit with the Infinity furnaces, but you would lose the Infinity diagnostics with the Comfort series. I could be wrong. I'd find it hard to believe that Carrier's Infinity furnace can only be used with 2 different products, the Performance and Infinity.

So what does the Infinity Diagnostics feature with the Performance line do?

To dallasbill, what did you pay for your setup if I may ask and do you have a Heat PUmp or AC?

It gives you all diagnostics pertinent to the eqt. you have.

We have AC. Total install (in a new build) for 2 systems of each (t-stat, furnace, AC) was about 11k as I recall, inc. 2 rebates at the time.