The furnace model number with the XR16 is an XC80. Very similar to the XV80 but communicating. Must be a mistake. TCONT803 is a fine thermostat to use with the XR16 air conditioner and furnace. Overall, I do not agree with the equipment matchups proposed with the furnaces and air conditioners. Oversized furnace on both systems, and oversized coil to achieve marginal efficiency gains on the XR16 system. I realize you may not understand all the implications of oversized equipment, but it is a big deal for comfort, efficiency and reliability. All things considered I still recommend the heat pump system. This post was edited by ryanhughes on Wed, Apr 24, 13 at 13:54

beth answers going down your list.... 1.length of life can vary depending on use, environment, yearly PMs, and quality of original install I personally believe 15 yrs min is a good target for good equipment and believe me there are some real junk HVAC on the market 2.you can not compare today's HPs against those 10 yrs and older. as different as night and day especially in the area of supply temp. Supply temp on a properly charged HP should easily be in low 90s depending on outside temperature. one reason I put in a dual fuel system was because while I liked the idea of operating savings of electric vs nat gas, I was somewhat skeptical of the acceptibility by myself and family as far as comfort. No problem. it is fine. In fact, I wish I had gone with an air handler rather than backup var speed furnace. This past season I used about 60 therms of nat gas for heating as the heat pump did the primary heating. 3.I really think you are confused on question 3. Temperature is temperature regardless of the speed it is delivered. On today's high eff furnaces that are two stg (newest mdls can have three stgs) models with var speed blowers, the heat that is delivered is what I call soft, quiet, gentile heat as opposed to the conventional furnaces that deliver very hot noisy heat. The temperature from the high eff var speed condensing furnaces while higher than today's high eff heat pumps is lower than the hot blast of non condensing furnaces. You may get some debate on this subject but based on my measurements that statement is correct. 4.There is no such thing as a dual fuel heat pump. A heat pump with backup furnace(as opposed to an air handler with heat strip backup) is called a dual fuel or hybrid application. The operating savings depends on the price of electricity and price of nat gas as well as the efficiency of equipment for a high eff heat pump and nat gas furnace. A heat pump provides AC just the same as an AC condenser. I believe I have given you the fuel comparison calculator in your previous thread which offers an accurate indication of possible savings. I really believe you are overthinking your situation. These are the minimum specs I would use for HP selection. 15 SEER, 12 EER, 9 HSPF full BTUs in both heating and cooling mode matching var speed air handler or var speed furnace scroll compressor preferred electronic demand defrost thermostat that controls blower speed like the HW VisionPro IAQ IMO

The DOE has worksheets that can help you calculate the relative cost of heating and cooling with different systems using your current energy costs. Of course you need to predict the relative costs over the next decade or two to really tell what is best. How is your crystal ball working? I would like to clear up a couple of common misconceptions. One type of heat does not dry a house in the winter any more than another. Leaky house envelopes dry houses. Heat by flame of some sort might dry a house more because they draw more outside air in if there is not a source of outside combustion air. That would be the only mechanism. There is nothing special about heat pumps in poorly-insulated, leaky homes. No heat or air conditioning source works as well in that situation as well as they do in tighter, well-insulated homes.

All units are Bryant Furnace = 355BAV A/C = 127A Heat Pump = 226A Had to order today to take advantage of rebate offer that ends 8/31. Never could figure out how to estimate the cost of running the heat pump vs. the gas furnace and couldn't locate any on-line calculators/spreadsheets that would help. Figured I'd save a bunch with new 95% furnace over the old sigle-stage 80%, and the new 17 SEER a/c over the old single-stage 10. It's small house (1450 sf) and well insulated, and I didn't know if I'd squeeze enough additional savings with a heat pump to justify the extra initial cost of the pump plus whatever extra cost would be involved in replacing it sooner because of running it much more. When in doubt, play conservatively (at least where money is involved), so I went for the a/c unit. Wish I'd discovered this website a month earlier. Thanks to all those who responded.