I find my house is less dry, our RH is holding in the mid 30's which I think is good for the dry air we've been having. I think last year it was high 30s. We leave front door open for spoiled pup to look out of storm door. I bet lots of dry air sneaks in that way! At least it's lowE glass! I have have carrier so I can't compare prices. I got their mid- hi level. 2-stage both heat and ac, but I thought multi speed and variable speed were the same, so mine is multi speed and not variable, I think variable would have been their Infinity line and they wanted another 1000 or more. I think there can be some negotiating, but they might just offer you different packages and jimmy the price around that way. I got so turned around trying to compare after a while. I had toooo much info and that's why I lost sight of the VS and ended up with multi, so be careful. Plus I was trying to stay under a price. You can try to use the quotes against each other, like buying a car. My saga ran into the fall, so I used buying in the slow season and was able to get them down. You might try that if you can wait for April, but watch the rebate dates. I paid $12k total out of pocket, but got a tankless water heater in the deal too. Love it. Sitting here now in my full steamy garden tub and when son comes home in a minute there will still be loads of water for him. Since my old furnace was 90%, I needed a high high eff water heater to qualify for top rebate. They also told me that with air sealing they have to install direct vent water heater ( or tankless which also direct vent) for safety reasons (CO2) because the regular kind need air to draft correctly and if house is tight it might not draft well. Don't know if that was BS, but I did see it to be the case on some websites. Is your water heater direct (power) vent? Payment is $83. We have savings, but not sure if they really are $83 month! My house is 2850 sq ft. The jan gas bill was $199, not counting the annual credit that is on jan bill for some reason. Old heater was 126k btu at 90% and new is 100k at 96%. How does yours compare? I liked the financing too, and figured even if dealer "stole" the rebates by up-pricing, the 0% alone was a deal.....is it still 10 years at zero? We also jumped as we saw many neighbors with broken down ac. (Same age and model) Sorry if tmi. I get that way, never shut up!

The old line set (copper tubing) can be reused assuming it is the correct size of the new system. If not then it needs to be replaced. It is not the preferred method, but it is done where replacing the line set is difficult. The new refrigerant will be R410. The old refrigerant (R22) must be flushed out of the old line set otherwise you have a contamination problem. This is another reason why it is good practice to replace the line set. FYI - we can talk about prices all day long on this forum. Be warned the lowest bid usually comes with the highest risk. Finally this has been beaten to death, but let's make sure you understand the concept. You can use a 3.5 ton air handler with a 3 ton condenser. The important thing is the air flow is adjusted to the correct speed. The 3.5 ton rating is the maximum air flow, not the minimum. In turns out in this case the 3.5 ton air handler has better efficiency numbers than the 3 ton air handler. If the bigger handler can physically fit in the space, then you can use it. You have to then decide if the extra efficiency is worth the extra upfront cost of the equipment.

As of right now, I don't know of any offering any rebates. I know Lennox, and probably others, just ended one recently. They should likely begin in the spring. Maybe someone else has more info. Don't forget about the $1500 tax credit for high efficiency purchases.

Thanks all! I am learning a lot. The reason I am thinking it is coil that is leaking is because the AC guy who performed initial diagnostic last Spring used some kind of a device which looked to me like "electronic leak detector", according to the posted description. At this time, I don't have a reason to believe he did a bad job last year. He poked his instrument in different places. One of the places that (according to him) showed the "leak" was the coil (which was, by the way, located inside the furnace cabinet in the basement, not outside.) The reason I am not completely sure about the diagnostic is the following. He said that according to his instrument's reading the leak was pretty minor. That's probably why he recommended simply recharging puron. However, the puron he put back into the system apparently leaked out over the course of last summer. So maybe the leak at the coil was not so minor in the first place? Or it could be because there was more than one place where the system has a leak? Anyway, I am going to call a different company this time. Based on the info I have so far, the coil might be only part of the problem. That's why I try to keep an open mind and consider alternatives. Yes, I read that 16 SEER is a minimum rating to qualify for tax credit. My concern is that I already replaced the gas furnace not so long ago. Can I pair my furnace (Carrier 58CVA110-20) with another modern Carrier AC unit of 16 SEER or higher so that they work seamlessly together? If yes, what model would match my Carrier furnace? If a new (comprehensive) test confirms that the leaking coil is the only problem, how much I should be prepared to spend on fixing it? The company that quoted me the price of ~$1600 last Fall told me that they would have to first evacuate the puron from the system (which is expensive), then replace the coil, and then put another load of puron into the system. That's why it is so expensive, they told me. Does it sound right? I've seen quotes for complete AC system installs at around $6K. Considering what I have to spend on diagnostics and repairs anyway, plus accounting for $1500 tax credit, I figured I will end up only couple of $thousands short of being able to replace the whole AC system... Or am I missing something and the difference between repairs and replacement is actually a lot more?