Think of the air flowing in the duct a lot like water running thru a hose. Attach a 1/2" hose at the end of a 3/4" hose- what happens? You still have a water feed psi of 65, but where you attach the smaller hose the velocity increases, but with an increase of velocity you have a rise in psi at the source (the 3/4" hose) and any psi rise means less total gallons per minute. The same happens in the ducts. The velocity increases, but the total cfm goes down and the static psi rise is at the air handler. This drop in cfm effects the whole systems capacity and it's ability to deliver the efficiency and will cause all kinds of problems such as icing up and compressor failure. Upgrade the attic insulation, have the walls checked for insulation and upgrade that as well if you can and since windows are the next biggest problem with cooling and heating a home than the attic- see if those can be replaced or tightened up. Then have a manj load done (this is critical). If the home is made more efficient, you may be able to save money by keeping the old ducting and the older system (which isn't very old at all to begin with) instead of trying to buy a bigger system which will eat more $$ cooling a loose house. Compare that to an ice chest. What is a better deal- buying an uninsulated ice chest for $10.00, then having to buy $30.00 worth of ice to keep things cool all day, or buying a $20.00 insulated one and spending $1.50 to keep things cool? I never like systems in an attic that isn't large enough to stand up in because those attics are hot and the system cannot be serviced as it should. However yours is already in the attic and if another will fit and repairs can be done, it's a lot less costly than re-ducting. A closet in the area is a better choice than outside. Package systems are nice but the duct is insightful and again not the desired method if at all possible.

I think alot of it depends on you and where you are. We are in the south, have fairly mild temps and a heat pump is wonderful for us. Hubby and I are also pretty warm natured. I have never cared for gas heat. To me it can be too warm and it is also drying. The price of heating with gas has also risen. We have a heat pump - and no gas back-up. On the rare occasion the house feels chilly, we simply use the fireplace as a bit of additional heat. Our electric bills are not bad, we usually have a couple of summer months that are higher than our winter bills. We have 3 heat pumps, one for the main house, one for our very large garage (4 car plus hobby/workspace) and a small unit for our sunroom (this was a screened - in porch at first and not heated/cooled). I should point out that while we personally do not need back-up heat, our house is super insulated. We also have a nice warm basement and I do think that helps the main floor.

Oh, no way, a failure by you, someone who's helping folks in your spare time?! No way! (I hope you were joking.) By "not a single person mentioned", I meant like installers when they came to give estimates, not anyone here. No trouble, it's all a learning experience. Yes, I had a media cabinet installed, but it was a Honeywell. I couldn't convince my installer to get the official Ruud cabinet. I wouldn't even call the condensate issue a failure necessarily by my installer, because he is right that my sump pump should work in freezing weather. Just these furnaces still aren't common in my area, so I'm surprised there aren't more words of caution out there. (In fact, my emergency handyman who came out that night cause I thought something had burst -- services rental properties as his full-time job -- turned to me and said "I haven't seen this before but your furnace is discharging water.") My installer is considering a condensate pump and there's a slight issue where the outdoor temp isn't being read. But overall, I'm super happy with my 96% Ruud and EcoNet thermostat. The thermostat tells me whether it's running high or low stage, I've been told I'm spending too much time with it. I can't thank everyone here enough. In the end, I was able to find a great HVAC team. It's been quite the adventure. I'll post pictures soon. The duct work is a masterpiece, everything was turned 90 degrees because otherwise code required I create a service opening in the wall.

a good basic single stage system and it is an AHRI match. See below. Pricing on high side. 7548567 ActiveSystems TRANE XR14 TRANE 4TTR4037L1 4PX*BD36AC3 1050 *DD1B080A9H3 34400 13.00 15.25 1RCU-A-CB All 284 I would get the Perfect Fit Media Cabinet and forget the ext labor warranty at that price. The only question I have is whether you could get away with the 60K XT80 furnace model over the 80 K size. Ask for a load calculation. More is not better. Once a year PM is enough BTW. IMO