Well, we made it through an extreme winter week in Texas with the new system. We were snowed in for four days and quite happy with the system. My husband is so happy with it he wants to send a letter to the installers. We'd never had the house warm when we were in the 20s and last week we hit the teens for long periods of time. We'd bought the thermostat that can be controlled from our iPhones, and love that we can tweak it from the couch or office. The first day was a bit stressful with power outages, breakers tripping and the heater fighting to warm the house back up between power issues. The second day we only had one outage early on and then the thing just worked. I am a little upset about some power issues we need to deal with. Someone else had posted that they would need another 60 amp breaker if they replaced their A/C unit, and I'd asked the electrician (my father) and the A/C guys if we needed to worry about more power being needed for the new system. Everyone said it would use the same power lines, no problem. The day they came to hook up, it was discovered that only one 60 amp line was going to the inside unit and the heat strip power was piggy backed off of that (or the reverse). Of course the new unit would need two 60 amp lines going to it. We happened to have an extra 60 amp breaker not being used, and we ran an extra wire to that for the air handler, so everything would have power. That 60 amp was for an extra hot water heater that I guess wasn't used much. Because, during the cold snap, I turned on the dryer while the heat was on and blew the whole house breaker. After discussing things, we got the breaker off and on again, and things going again. As a test I ran the dryer again and the breaker again blew after 10 minutes. So, now I need to get an electrician out (not my father), to see if that breaker box can hold a higher amperage main breaker. Right now it's at 100. I'm not sure the house brings in enough off the transformer. I thought it was an issue when I considered an on-demand water heater and we didn't have the power to do it. During the cold snap, I'd turn off the breakers to the Heater any time I wanted to dry clothes. It wasn't a long term solution, and it's probably something we need to solve before we're running the A/C this summer. Oh, and the heat strip we have now is 15kw, the one it replaced was 10kw. I'm not sure if that's what put us over the edge, or if it's the condenser or a combination of things. Hopefully an electrician will be able to get us set up and working right.

IMHO, the reason for the failure was the system age. It was original Bryant equipment from when the condo was built 29+ years ago. Out of 200+ condos, mine was the last survivor of the bunch as far as I could tell, and most definitely in the immediate area. It was actually one of the last remaining in 1998 when I bought the place, so it owed me nothing. The tech said that there was several issues including a compressor isssue that was tripping the breaker, evaporator coil leaking, and blower wheel bearing. As for linesets, I poised the question and the dealer said that they did not need to be replaced, but they were going to flush them and reuse them. To replace them I would need substantial drywall removed for access (heat pump on lower level, air handler on upper level). He did not believe that we needed to go to that expense. Finally, from what I read, you do indeed still need to register the units within 90 days with Trane for the extended warranty.

>> 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.

1st the breaker is a Pushmatic 50amp 220 vac with #8 stranded wire. The problem is that this breaker only trips during the day when the set-back thermostat kicksback on to lower the temp to 75 (from 80). After we reset the breaker (5pm) and turn on the a/c it works all nite and lowers the temp. Once it reaches 75 it stops and then restarts when the temp gets back to 76 or 77 working normally. It only tripped once at nite but once you reset it - it works fine. But when you leave the house for the day the breaker trips. The fan keeps running but not the compressor. My kids say its the ghost screwin with me. I have cleaned the dirt around the condensor. Now, the A/C repairman came to fix the unit - he didn't fix it. The condenser is a 40-45 amp 6 year old Trane (4 ton). He replaced the contactor yesterday. He said that it had a little burn mark on one of the contacts but it looked almost new - no pitting. He also said that with this type of problem its a hit and miss because this is intermittent. He also said that he didn't think that there was anything wrong with the unit. He also didn't think that there was anything wrong with the breaker (it didn't feel warm). But I kept saying that it happens all the time. You reset the breaker, it cools to the desired temp. then when it kicks back on the breaker trips - but not all the way. With the Pushmatic it has a little window that says "on/off" but when it trips it never says off. Could it be that one side of the breaker is tripping but not enough for it to fully trip? The guy also said that it might be the thermostat and/or the filters (I changed filter yesterday). I'll probably replace the thermostat tonight and I'll have someone change the breaker this weekend. Boy this is a pain! I'm thinking that maybe the breaker is a little weak. Any help would be appreciated - thanks, Spiker