Thank you. Great responses. I spoke to him a bit this evening. He as agreed to upgrade the air handlers because I told him after reading some other posts on this forum that variable speed was required. He also agreed to upgrade thermostats as I told him we wanted a digital, programmable thermostat as a minimum. Unfortunately I had not yet read the comments on the unit in this thread. However, I did convince him to do the upgrades and cut the price to $12,4000.00 (he started at $13,900.00). Cost is an issue. We ended up uncovering an underground spring and our excavation cost gave us a kick to the knee. We've negotiated everything heavily and have gotten back in budget but it has required months of my working weekends on the house as well as going from HardiBoard to CertainTeed to make up the difference. Any other advice? I have not yet signed a contract. Thanks for all your help! Mark

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

We are in the process of replacing a 1 year old...Yes,1 year old 4 ton ($12,400put in Aug.20,2011) air conditioner:TraneXL16i seer:16.5 furnace:TraneXV95 load calculation was done by 5 out of the 6 companies stating we needed a 4 ton unit. We just had a company come out and they said we are oversized by 1 ton and that was the reason for our whole problem?? We have what they call 'dirty sock' syndrome which started 2 weeks after it was installed!! 4 coil changes later still an issue. When we ran it in emergency heat over the winter,without a coil,no smell!!! With Tranes non responsiveness to all I would never get a Trane again!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I've read about all the problems with all units and am more confused then ever,but I do know that I will not get a heatpump again!!! Our original Lennox furnace(19yrsold)began getting stuck/freezing(not turning on) no smell issues whatsoever. Since we had just finished with our D.I.Y renovation of our home we decided to get a new unit,more energy efficient since it was the last thing that was needed to complete our home! I cannot believe how each and every contractor differs on their load calcs...you would think there would be some sort of protocol/procedure to do this accurately and come up with the same numbers?? More confused then ever~smile~Afraid to get that horrendous smell back in my house with another 'coil'...and Yes, we had one dipped and the procedure was done incorrectly , even the contractor said the chemical smell was making him ill...it was in the house for 1 hour and he had to take it out immediately after closing up the unit(took him an hour to install it). We had to air out the house mid winter and sit outside...stress to say the least....Any comments advice would be appreciated~smile~ I too live in W.N.C.

the lennox dealer corrected their quote as follows; 2 ton Lennox Elite Series heat pump system incliding outdoor unit model XP14-024-230 rated 15 seer, 13 eer & 9 HSPF W/A410A refridgerant. Air handler model #CBX27UH-024-230. System is equipped with 10 KW back up heat. Install a new drain pan & moisture switch. Will remove all old equipment via crane taking out existing electostatic filter and replace with new filter grilles in the existing returns which will be easier to replace on a monthly basis. Cost is now $5,975 before rebate from BGE of $400 & Feds. $1500 which also apllies to the Carrier units except Carrier has rebate of $175 for the first quote & $400 for the second if still applicable. The Carrier system comes with a 10 year warranty on all parts 1 year labor with a option to upgrade to 10 years labor for and additional $975 Lennox comes with 10 yrs compressor & 5 yrs other parts 2 yrs workmanship & matrials 1 yr free service. Which one is the better system for the money. Carrier is about $500 more if their rebate is still in effect. I didn't address the other Lennox quote because of the the higher cost.