Thank you for your response Tigerdunes. I will definitely check with the bidder on the third party evaporator coil. I specified matched systems having read your prior posts to others extensively, but didn't catch that this evaporator coil wasn't a matching Trane. Thanks. The boiler was sufficient in heating the entire 1200 square feet main floor living space with AND without all the radiators in place. I don't recall the size at the moment, but will check. The HVAC people were all pleased with its size when they looked at it. Because the house is without electric and water service as yet, we are not totally sure the boiler is still in working order. It was not fire damaged, but water from the fire fighters and heat from the fire might have caused some unknown problems, which was another reason to hedge the bet by adding a gas furnace. The second reason for considering a gas furnace, not just A/C is that a realtor who knows the house and its value, - which is considerable for a small house, given its location and craftsman, cedar shingled cottage charm - suggests that some buyers don't like radiator systems, and feels the addition of an alternate heat system and the addition of A/C will be worth it, which is another reason I got the bid for it. The third reason for considering a gas furnace is code compliance, and the cost to do so. The cost of adding hydronic units to the sunroom, pantry, dining room and bath areas to meet code are unnecessary if I install the gas furnace. Anyone wanting to use the radiator system only for heat would have to add these units, or live without them as I did, but code is met with the addition of a furnace. No furnace, and I have to add radiators in the areas mentioned above and detailed below. I agree that a heat pump would be the way to go if we knew for sure that the radiator system was going to be the primary source of heat as it was when I lived in the house. New owners might opt for a forced air system. My question on this is, can a gas furnace be added into the system as cost effectively later as it can be added now with the A/C going in. The new heating system, if installed, l would heat/coo the 1200 sq ft main floor with its 9 ft ceilings, with two registers in the open 950 sq ft unfinished basement. The basement stays cool in summer and warm in winter without additional heating and cooling. The attic space, if developed later, will be heated and cooled with an in-wall, Mitsubishi type system. Trying to run ducts and vents is a problem, which is why we don't have the new proposed system sited in the attic. It would make the attic fairly unusable in a future development as a master suite and sitting room. The ducting layout using the in the basement location has worked well, and the location of cold air returns well placed and spaced. So the attic will not be heated or cooled with this system. In the past, with the boiler, the heat loss from the main floor was enough to keep the attic above freezing, but does not warm it significantly. The attic has 4 large double window sets, 3 large Velux skylights and a 4.0 french door set, and the roof is black, so it stays warm enough on sunny days, and is well ventilated in summer.. The attic floor will be re-insulated at this time, but not the walls or ceiling. The new insulation in the attic floor will be far better than the old, and as I said, the new windows throughout, from basement to attic are a vast improvement in energy efficiency over what the boiler used to have to handle. The 950 sq ft basement is unheated at present, though I believe two registers will be added to this space with the new furnace The basement stays comfortable in winter when the boiler is in operation simply from the hot water pipes to the radiators and hot water heater and warmth of the up stairs. It is is open space, unfinished and only used for laundry and workshop space/tool storage. The dining room radiator was removed from under a south facing bump out window. That window was removed and replaced by an exterior double french door when a new deck was added at the time of the new boiler. The heat loss to this room was noticeable but not enough to be a problem for me, though it would be for others, and it is for code. Each room has to have a heat source, so I either have to put in a register or add a radiator. The bathroom is only 6x7 and is now warmed by the heat/fan which is not sufficient for code. I have a not yet installed hydronic towel bar that gives off 1500 BTU, enough to handle the bath and the small hall adjoining the dining room, bath, bedroom and parlor. If I do the gas furnace, this is unnecessary. At same time the new boiler was installed, a kitchen was installed in a 11x12 ft space that only had a sink and refrigerator with a radiator. An adjoining but separate 6x8 pantry at the south end of the kitchen had a stove and a cabinet. The pantry is also an access corridor to the basement stairs. So in installing a kitchen, I removed the radiator and replaced it with a toe kick radiator under the sink base the fully fitted kitchen. Base and upper cabinets were added to the pantry on the load bearing exterior wall that separated the pantry from the screen 8x8 screened back porch at the other half of the kitchen south wall. The fire that started at the electric service connection into the house was located on the east wall between the kitchen and screen porch, so this area and the attic above it were severely impacted by the fire. In rebuilding this area, the screen porch got a solid foundation, was mostly opened to the kitchen, and serves as a sunroom breakfast area. It is,fully windowed from ceiling to 36 inches above the floor with a door that opens to the deck. The load bearing wall separating the sunroom from the pantry still exists, but the pantry is now open to the kitchen rather than walled off with a doorway. The kitchen toe kick puts out 5,600 BTU and has to handle the kitchen sunroom and pantry area now. If I do not add a furnace, code will require me to heat the sunroom and pantry areas, which I would do with toe kick units under the pantry base cabinets - one venting into the sunroom through the wall and one venting into the pantry. If I add a furnace, this will not be required, we will simply use those areas for the forced air registers. If I do not add a furnace I will have to provide hydronic heat sources for both areas. So, to answer your question 4, the only addition to the heat load that the boiler has covered adequately (1200 sp ft) is the 8x8 fully weatherized and insulated sunroom. If I go with a gas furnace we will add the register(s) for the unfinished basement. I don't know if code requires the basement to be covered. I do know the non living space attic does not need to be covered. Sorry for all the detail, but I find that sooner or later the information is needed, so I am trying to give it all upfront.

Jt Some questions please. What is your location? What size home living area? What size furnace and eff are you replacing? What size AC are you replacing? I would like to know the exact mdl number evap coil for each quote. What thermostat is proposed for the Carrier quote? That is a big difference between the 96% eff Carrier furnace and the 80% eff Trane furnace-both 60 K input. That would be about 56 KBTUs output on the Carrier and about 48 KBTUs on the Trane. Not insignificant. I don't care for some shortcuts that homeowners make particularly on reusing linesets and using existing thermostats that shortchange a nice furnace's operational capability. Post back with the info requested. IMO

If you're in the process of selling the home, it is not likely you will get any increase in the selling price of the home, except maybe for very high end systems with a multitude of bells and whistles --- even then you will only get what someone is willing to pay and this amount is likely to come no where close to what it cost you to purchase the new system. If the AC has problems reaching adequate temp drop across indoor coil this will probably get flagged via a home inspection. However, it's also very likely it may not get flagged. It depends greatly on the severity of the leak, if there truly is a leak. AC tune ups are often times methods used to get in your front door to sell you something, that typically you don't need. This is why you should have a reputable AC repair guy on speed dial. You will always need one regardless of whether the AC system is new or old. Because of the age of your system, it's possible it may have a leak. But it's also possible that this leak *may* not require but a recharge and a thorough examination in tightening various refrigerant connections. There are a lot of grey areas when it comes to refrigerant leaks. If you didn't pay for a Freon leak check, I would seriously question the validity of any such claim. Especially if you haven't noticed any cooling problems. Why wouldn't you accept a free Freon leak check? Because then the company doing it only has the incentive of finding a leak to sell you something. [That you likely don't need.] But free sounds so good. Temp drop should be 15-20 degrees. I prefer to see closer to 20 degrees. If a home buyer is more concerned about the mechanicals of the home a new system may help you sell the home faster in that situation. Air conditioning and Heating are typically viewed as a needed accessory by anyone looking to purchase a home. So while you don't typically get a higher value for the home for having a new system, the home price can be effected when part or parts of that system have problems and are requiring a repair. If the home is located in a more extreme cooling climate the amount of time it takes to sell the home could be impacted, but only if the cooling performance is noticed while viewing the property. Cooling performance can be effected by design of the system, just as much or more than Freon leak related issues. I service the Katy, Cypress & Richmond, Texas areas.

Well your situation is rather unique, but in the terms of the warranty from manufacturer, the burden of proof still would fall on you. Homebuilders are not known for providing warranties / registering equipment --- there are a slew of home builder problems on this board. Some HVAC related, with many others completely different problems. I doubt the GC put it in his name because this would require work on his part, his name probably appeared there because he was the one who bought the machine from the manufacturer. Homebuilders 'typically' do not register the equipment, they are more interested in going off to the next build. They build, it's what they do. How do I know this? Because had he registered it in his name the warranty would be 10 years and not 5. If the equipment is not 'officially' registered there is no record of who 'owns' it, except of course who bought it. Equipment made these days have codes built in as to knowing the day and in some cases the hour in which the machine came off the assembly line. Without registration the manufacture allows up to 90 days beyond the date in which the machine came off the production line. So Mr./Mrs. home owner comes along buys a new home... wow everything is new, looks great. No worries everything is 'new'. You have a life so you don't concern yourself with things that 'could' go wrong. Like documentation of equipment warranties and things like that. As I said above, right - wrong or indifferent this is the way things work in this realm. (you don't have to like it, I didn't make up any of these rules -- I am not a homebuilder. I am the one who comes in and corrects homebuilder mistakes. I am not paid by the homebuilder -- I am paid by YOU. The homeowner.) It is up to you, the home owner to 'make sure' everything is to your liking. Including the name in which is on the contract specifying who owns the equipment at your home. Equipment warranties can be expensive for a manufacturer, there's paper work processing to validate that the warranty is credible or not, there's hacks out there that are claiming warranty when in fact there is nothing wrong. So because of all this nonsense that happened in the past has put us where we are now. I don't doubt that it took you time to sort this out. But in the eyes of the manufacturer they are standing there holding the tiniest violin in the world and playing 'Comb By Ah My Lord'.