A heat gain/loss needs to be performed separately on both floors. Normally the first floor requires less Btuh to cool than the 2nd floor area; in your case that may not be the reality. Free Whole House or, 1st & 2nd Floor Areas' Load-Calcs performed separately. You can easily reduce infiltration rates yourself, therefore, IâÂÂd use 0.4 ACH (Air Changes per Hour) be sure to add the (Air Changes per Hour) CFM into the âÂÂFresh Air Recommended âÂÂline-slot, or it wonâÂÂt figure the Infiltration & fresh air Btuh. You can experiment with changing the design temperatures in both heat & cooling, (or start-over showing the New Retro-R-Values) also to see whether the equipment exceeds, at those particular temperatures & new retro conditions. You can't save the completed calc, so when you think it's right, Print it. The Snipping Tool can be used to capture an on screen image of the completed calc., which may be uploaded to this thread. The 2.5% summer design in Atlanta, GA is 92ðF & 74ðF wet bulb for about 43% RH; calc may show a lower design temp; use it. Here is a link that might be useful: Free Whole House or Floor Area Load-Calc

Tiger, my conflict is because I know I am being overcharged due to the rebate program. I resent that and just want a fair deal. I know that I am "losing" part of my rebate to the contractor who leaves me with just enough to make me think its a good deal because of the great financing. It is the financing which has made me decide to do it, that plus the attic sealing and insulation which I would probably not otherwise do. I ask a lot of questions because I like to be informed. Not really sure if heat pump will be worth it here either. They claim my energy "savings" will be an additional 5% or so, though a contractor not in the program told me they will manipulate numbers to make it work. Because the heat pump is slightly more efficient in my case I get a $1000 higher rebate, so my net cost is Actually the same. This is because the non hp option uses a more efficient hot water heater (needed for the program) that they are charging 400 more for, AND the rebate is 1000 lower. With those 2 choices the hp makes sense. It would make even more sense if the upgrade cost was not $1500. I could go tankless with non hp, get the full rebate, but cost is 500 more than hp. Figured I am more likely to see savings on the hp so not spending the extra 500. Anyway, after this heat wave i totally see the value in getting my attic done, so even though I will not be fully realizing the amazing 5000 rebate I will probably do it. My ac, in it's 16th year, had a hard time getting below 75 on these hot days, even the ones only in the low 90's. I'm sure it will be going in the next year or two. Neighbor paid 9200 beforerebates for a Lennox xc17 with an 80% furnace. I figure my higher eff furnace would cost more and so would a heat pump, but I know Amana would be cheaper than Lennox, based on that i think the 9200 is a reasonable cost to compare.... I will be spending about 11k for the Amana system, with a new power vent hwh and insulation and air sealing. I think that is reasonable (though I'd prefer a different brand ). I also think my price should be closer to 9k after rebates and that I am getting "only" 2000-2500 value of the 5000 rebate. I am also getting excellent financing. The dealer did do my audit and spend time getting my estimates together and revising them.....not 2500 worth of work. Decided to just do it if I can get the price dif between hp and not-hp lowered. I know you think I'm a pain, but what would you do? Would you accept a price you know is very high or keep asking questions? You have to,admit the price of 11800 is very high for Amana Aszc16 and Amvc95. (4 ton, 90k btu) Does any of that explain why I am conflicted? I am not normally difficult, only when I sense something is not right. Lucky for me when I buy cars there are sites to tell me what is fair and reasonable....being educated is my best option. I could just get an hvac but I don't see us ever forking out the $ for the attic work,separately, and I know it should be done. The attic must be done to get rebate so may as well do it. I hope you can see I am moving toward a decision. I don't want to bother getting more prices. I trust this co and now want to get the best deal that is reasonable from them. Just really wondering at this point how much wiggle room there might be on the Amana set up. The carrier is 2k more and I just don't see the value in it.

Thanks for the comments tigerdunes. We've been over this quite a bit already. The pricing is average for the North East....labor rates tend to be quite high and the $600 rebate makes the price of the furnaces excellent. I obviously have two stage thermostats and the sizes of the furnaces were decided after heat loss calculations. I live in an older home in a cold climate and my calculations were within 10% of my contractor's. The calculation for my two floor unit came in at 75kBTUs. The contractor initially wanted to install a 100kBTU unit, but I talked him down to 80kBTU. The furnace for the renters below me is a bit large, but it was the smallest two stage available from American Standard. I thought about installing a 92% efficient 40kBTU single stage furnace with selectable motor speed, but as the 60kBTU two stage with variable speed motor was the same price after the rebate I went with that one.so that both furnaces essentially the same and to get the variable speed blower. I imagine having the second stage will also be nice on very cold mornings.

Yeah I'm high and dry thankfully, the roads are a mess up here so traffic delays will likely be a nightmare for a few weeks if it can stop raining more a while to let us dry out. I think part of the problem you're getting is the manufacturer dealer you are using. You see Trane and American Standard are mostly one in the same. They force contractors that use them to exclusivity deals meaning they can't offer other options that are made by other manufacturer's. If they went behind Trane / American Standard and offered these solutions they would probably get chopped off at the knees. The other part may be that they pre-purchased equipment to get better pricing and they have a lot of that equipment in stock from the past year. That is about the only rhyme or reason why I think they are probably telling you these things, because they are totally inaccurate. Certainly any 5 ton system SEER rating will diminish when it is operating in 2nd stage, but in terms of running in 2nd stage usually this will only be in the hours of heavy loads. Typically between 3pm and 6pm. Certainly if we get a heat wave it may run more in 2nd stage during longer spans than those times above. You can easily prove this to yourself when you watch the weather forecast on TV. Pay attention to the highs and lows of the day. Notice that lows are over night (usually) and the highs aren't hit until around 3pm-4pm usually. Well if the average low in summer is around 70 degrees there is far less load on the home than the high of 95 degrees or more. In other words a two speed AC system will most likely run in first stage for hours outside the 3pm to 6pm window. Which means 1/8 of the day it runs in 2nd stage... unless a heat wave or you're cranking settings etc. The flip side is that because the system has 2 stages it runs longer in 1st stage... during all this time it is removing humidity. Lower the humidity and you feel much more comfortable. When deciding make sure the system is a 2 stage with a 2 stage thermostat minimum. SEER ratings are tricky because you could have a 17 SEER single speed air conditioner. The single speeds are the ones not worth it because you don't get the dehumidify punch from those... they are either on or off. Realize it's not only just about efficiency it's also about comfort.