I think we made a mistake? Our 20 yr old heat pump failed in Jan. We just installed a Goodman (Amana)3.5 ton split system in our 1540sf single story home. The new ac ran all day yesterday, the first day of installation, yet the home never cooled below 75deg (outside high temp range 93-100, 10-14% humidity)? Installer said: thermostat needed to "seat in, and the core temp of home needed to cool down." AC ran all day again today, yet could never get below 74 deg (outside high temp range 97-102, same humidity). The old Rheem 2.5 ton heat pump did just as good as new unit, which comes as a surprise to me? Isn't this new unit supposed to be more efficient? I have lived in several homes in this area over the last 25 years, and none of the ac units have run constantly. My last home, 1630 sf, had a 3 ton unit, yet the ac would only cycles on for 15-20 minutes, and cycles off for 15-20 min, easily keeping 68-72 deg. If I turned the thermostat lower, the house would get colder. I don't know how low it would go, but mid 60s easily, possibly high 50s? After reading this board, it appears we have made some mistakes, like choosing a unit that has r-12, or at least I think it does? It also appears we made a mistake by not choosing the 14seer over the 13seer, so to get the better, quieter "scroll" compressor? Maybe we bought the wrong brand of equipment? We are worried now, that this supposedly more efficient unit (as compared to low seer value of the old equipment) will be too costly to run if it is necessary to run it all day to achieve a reasonable, but not great level of cooling? Did we buy junk? East of Sacramento, near Folsom, CA

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.

It's not a bad idea to convert to a heat pump from propane. Outside the delivery problems propane is a danerous gas. Not dangerous when used properly, but mishandled and it can level a city block. (I don't think the OP is in the city, so I am using a metaphor when I say this.) A solar system will have to be quite large to handle the energy needs of ANY resistance type heating system (electrical strip heat in any comibination draws alot of power), then if you're off grid you will also need large battery banks of power to supplement those needs to run the heat when the sun isn't shining. Trying to do this DIY, is going to be a costly lesson in futility. A heat pump can reduce those demands placed on solar systems, BUT you will still need battery back up system of some kind OR grid tied system. The more power you burn, the more solar panels and batteries you will need. The cost of batteries never goes away. There's cost in maintaining them, if you set them up improperly meaning they are drained to far down or not down far enough this will effect the life of the batter... which leads to even more cost. If you undersize the solar system and battery system.... you're going to be cold. So while you think you have problems with a propane system now, there may come a day in which you wish you could just call someone to fill the propane tanks, deal with the inconvenience of having to wait it out... but not have to be continuously jacking with an 'off grid solar system' that no one will touch because you installed it. It's either that or you call a solar system company they come out and tell you the system is inadequate and want to install an entirely new system... which ultimately will put you in a bad position. Either way... whatever the OP decides to do... they are going to learn how to be extremely energy conscious in their daily lives. A little bit of advice: cut your engery needs. It's far cheaper to build a solar system with low energy needs than higher energy needs. Not only cheaper up front, but also in maintanance and ultimately replacement costs. (The solar system, nor anything else on this planet will last forever.) I think if it were me in this situation with a family (IE multiple people in the home) I would use a duel fuel combination of propane furnace and heat pump. Use the heat pump in mild weather and only use the propane furnace when weather dips below 32F for any significant amount of time. Given the advances in heat pump tech you might be able to run the heat pump as low as 20F using the heat of propane furnace during defrost. If the OP is living alone it's a toss up as your needs one day may include living with more people in the home.

I got an Aprilaire 800 beginning of Feb from & installed by HVAC comp. The owner (master HVAC 30+ yrs) was supposed to do it but was on another job. The guy who did has been in the businesses for 20 some years, hadn't put one of these in for a long time, he kept looking at install manual. Owner stopped by at the end to check everything over. The thing ran for 3 days & humidity went from 25 to 17. He shut off my hot water tank & I didnt realize it so no hot water over weekend. I turned it down to 1 (to quit running) & the next day my humidity was UP to 26. Owner came made adjustment & same thing. Says it needs 72 hrs to get humidity to correct level. So for a month now & seeing him about 6 times now, banging noises, smell, etc he has changed a pin, said my water was to clean & got a different canister (with salt), humidifier & furnace blew the electric - so had no heat thru the night. I googled & found noise was water hammer & the other the furnace flexing from temp change of steam going thru. He had insisted none of this was caused by his work/ install, just that i had never noticed it before!! ( he did do adjustments to resolve) He said he sells these all the time & had one himself., which now I don't believe cause he appears clueless as this is still not working properly. I think he just wanted the $$. If he sells/installs so many then he should have known about the water in " my area" being to clean. I told him just remove it & install a new one " can't Aprilaire makes me get on phone with them & trouble shoot can't just get a new one". After running over 24hrs (& past 2 days a lot of rain) it shows 19% ( down from 22 yesterday). He mentioned something about switching the amp from 15 to 20 in panel box. My 3 story townhouse is 9 yrs old, 2420 sq ft & voltage for Aprilaire is running off 110v, ( he said is fine), to install the 240 would mean $$$ , hiring an electrician & tearing up ceiling & re drywall+ paint etc 40' from furnace room to breaker panel. When it runs after an hour, the black hose w/steam to furnace gets hot, & after 2 hrs shuts off - which is correct, then hose cools down. The smell from this is bad, its an odor of sauerkraut, old dirty socks,& last nite I smelled an added smell of rubber/oil chemical . Not good, its ran enough I would think at this point the smell should be burned off? If this is the norm for anyone please advise!!! I don't want to breath this & its probably toxic for my pets. I'm already a month in with this, if its an ongoing smell & before it gets to late I want to return. I'm questioning his ability for this product, & overall knowledge period. When he became defensive about noises that he didn't "cause" , then I suggested water hammer, he made adjustments to fix' , so that was the problem- probably not enough water flowing to machine now lol! I read this can work off 110amp but don't know if it is enough for my house (3 story th, 2420 sq', 9 yrs old), I certainly do not want to spend another $1000+ for electrician & drywall repairs to put in 220 or 240amp (forgot). I live in the nations richest county Loudoun Va(not by choice- nor am i rich) so when I say $1k, that's probably low. Although he's willing to make it right, the constant visits, the smell, etc. is annoying. I'm scared what my electric bill will be, I think this unit is defective, but more so needs the higher voltage. If there is such a thing as returning it for full refund after 30 days, I'm now at 26 days with "trying" to get it to work. If I can return, then I'll have holes left all over furnace walls, He says he can't get a new unit, Aprilaire makes them do this. The next fix would be replace the electrical board & continue from there. I don't want to proceed by deconstructing & rebuilding the thing. It was $1200, it should work, if not after trying a few things replace it. Summer is close, so it will be shut off & then, in fall I have to play this again? (sorry venting now) Any suggestions? Is this normal - 3 days to get house humidity up? (its never even got to 35%) Smell? Running constantly gonna burn out my blower? No exchange for a new machine? Is there a better humidifier? Is electric voltage the true problem & I'll just use a boatload $$$ of electric to get this to work? Is there a better steam heat whole house humidifier that is out there? ( without requiring the higher electric amps) Thank you for any help!