Barb: "Is a return the vent the air comes out of once it has been cooled?" - No, that's the supply air. The return air (or recirculated air) is sucked from each room usually thru vents near the top of the walls (for summer). "Maybe the noise issue is why the architect has enclosed the air handler and has it taking air in through the laundry room." - Probably. Just make sure there is enough room in that closet for maintenance. You don't want to have to tear out the walls of that closet to replace a major part. "Can you explain a variable speed air handler?" - An air handler has either a fixed speed fan or a variable speed fan. A v-s fan motor can vary its speed to put out a constant volume of air under different ductwork conditions. A v-s fan can also be slowed down to remove more humidity in the summer time. They are now common in new residential installations but are very expensive to replace ($1000) if they fail out of warranty. "Is air handler placement (regarding air draw) less important than I think it is?" - It depends weather this is a furnace (gas/oil/propane) or just a plain air handler for a heat pump or straight a/c. If it's a furnace, then yes it matters because the furnace needs combustion air. If its not a furnace, then it doesn't really matter because the air handler is used to supply cooled/heated air and return/recycle the house air. "I know some people put them in the attic." - I don't recommend this. Too damn hot in the attic, especially in Florida. This will effect equipment operation as well as maintenance. Keep asking questions. Best to you.

Nonsense about oil heat adversely affecting sale of my home in my area. As I have previously explained, I live in a relatively affluent subdivision of early 1970s residences in the MD suburbs of DC. The homes built in 1970-1972 all have gas heat. In 1973 a moratorium was created preventing any new gas hookups and thus the second half of the homes all have oil heat. I do follow property values in our area quite closely and the selling prices have no apparent correlation with heating fuel type. As a retired military service member, I have bought and sold many homes - likely more that most here. Heating method, while an item of immense interest in this forum was not at the top of the list of considerations re any home my wife and I bought. Schools, yes. # BRs and # baths, location, age of home, location, commute, condition, perceived re-sale, all yes. (And likely many other considerations, including working heating. lol) I'm a bit of a TV junkie now that I'm retired. I do watch "House Hunters" and I have NEVER heard a house hunter identify heating fuel as a consideration in their search. There is a lot of bad advice given here due to not "doing the math" - all things being equal, I would prefer to have NG heat rather than oil. Cheaper operating costs, not concern about deliveries, etc. However, I have done the best I can to insulate, reduce heating set point, shift the heating burden to heat pump, and closely monitor costs. I don't have NG available, but based on the costs to bring in NG (based on the experience of a few of my neighbors that were able) it makes absolute no economic sense IN MY CASE. If you don't use very much of an expensive product, your absolute costs may not be that great and the incentive to convert may well be lessened. If you visit the roofing forum, I suspect they'll identify the roof as the most important factor effecting price... in the landscaping forum it will be the grounds, in the kitchen forum, the kitchen and bath. Heating is certainly an important concern, but we need not cry wolf about it.

So I got another quote over the weekend. Same ruud system as the order ruud quote. His quote was at about $7000 which includes a new line set and moving the air handler about 10 inches and the duct work about 2 ft. I then asked him about a trane quote. His response was that he did not like trane cos they have electronic/electric txv which is expensive to maintain/repair. I asked about american standard and he said that trane and AS are no longer made by the same company or will no longer be made by the same company. As I understood it, the company that makes trane is in the midst of divesting itself of the american standard part of the company. Any truth to these assertions? Thanks.

I put one in last year, and according to my kill-a-watt meter, we're paying less than $10 a month for hot water even at our summer electricity pricing, which is 22 cents/kw. That said, the heart of the technology is basically the same as a $99 window air-conditioner, and the new units are made in China - so who knows what the durability will be. I paid $699 shipped, but apparently, these units were selling for $499 before the tax credit was announced, and it looks like the price was recently jacked to $799... The quality seems decent, but it does have a "buzzy" sound when it's running that would be really annoying if you had it near a sleeping or living area. The install was super-easy for me - I used a new AOSmith 50-gallon electric water heater as the tank (I hooked up the power supply to the standard heater, but turned off the breaker, so I can use the standard elements if the Airtap fails) Would I do it again? - MEH..I dunno - playing around with the pricing to steal the tax credit seems kind of sleazy, the warranty is really ambiguous - to qualify for the tax credit they had to offer a five-year warranty I believe, but their website now says two years - the new integrated units from GE and Rheem have ten years of coverage, and they have the benefit of being able to use both the heat pump and standard electric elements to give you super-fast recovery if you have guests over, or a huge garden tub to fill. A quick Ebay search shows the competitors are around $1500~ish, but if you haven't taken the tax credit yet, you could snag $500 in government cheese and nullify the cost difference with a better warranty. The technology is an excellent idea, and when the competition drives pricing to where it really belongs - (Until then... meh... Certainly it can pencil out, but the energy-saving payoff exceeds the warranty which makes me nervous. Solar really isn't any better, and tankless seems to be snake-oil when you look for real savings data, but to each his own...