a nice system...reasonable pricing...I would want a filter media box...since you say there are obstacles to a high eff condensing furnace and are limited to an 80% eff Infinity furnace, you might consider upgrading to a HP if you have a decent electric rate....if you provide your electric and nat gas rates, I will run the comparison numbers to see if this option is worth pursuing...

IMO

Great question! As a guy who makes his living working with people, I've learned to look past the words and try to listen to what the question really is. Two things in your question struck me as important.

• $7500 price. It was interesting that the first part of the question was price. We live in interesting and very trying times financially. It's in our nature to look at price first and foremost. If you are shopping for the cheapest price, the cheapest price you will get, but be careful what you wish for. As a contractor, I compete with a lot of "wheeling dealing" contractors that know how to cut their cost......I mean get you a really good deal (wink, wink!). $7,500 is a lot of money, I don't care who you are. When I spend my money I want to know it's spent well. This is a decision you will most likely be living with for at least 15 years. Suppose you could get a much better job or equipment, but it costs $300 more. Over 15 years, that is $20 more per year. Just a thought, but it's worth mentioning. Also, is a replacement necessary or would repair be a viable option? Just ideas.
• You have a quote for Carrier. Carrier is a good manufacturer. I am a Carrier dealer myself and have no problem with Carrier. From a purely objective viewpoint, most manufacturers are pretty much the same. The Carrier, Trane, York, and xyz dealers who are awarded trips and prizes for selling their brand of equipment may ding me for saying that, but it's the truth.

If you are in a position where you have to replace your equipment, please consider to focus, not on brand or price (much), but on finding a contractor you trust. Believe it or not, some (ha! ha!) contractors are a little less than honest and will sell you what their distributors tell them to, "slap" the stuff in, collect their money, and leave you holding the bag when it goes bad. I know.......hard to believe isn't it? If you have to interview 10 contractors, spend your energy finding one that you really trust. It may take 10 to find one you can trust, but it will be well worth the time and effort. Anybody can slap in a piece of equipment and take your hard earned money. Find one that is excited about giving you references and will offer you a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That is you don't pay until you are 100% satisfied. That will show you a lot about who has confidence in their work.

Well, I may have gotten off track. Sorry about that, but this is something I'm passionate about. When replacing equipment, you must find someone trustworthy, because the majority are not. I've written several articles dealing with equipment replacement. If you're interested, here is one that may help you make your decision, Dirty Secrets Your Cooling Contractor Doesn't Want You to Know!

Very Best wishes and congratulations on being a smart homeowner and doing your research before you buy.

How large is the house and what are the sizes of the current equipment? You don't want the equipment to be over sized. Bigger is not better. Ideally the contractor should do a load calculation, but most do not and even those that do it might not be accurate.

I would rather see you get the 95%+ AFUE furnace, but I understand if the furnace is going into a finished basement the additional work involved.

Is the line set (copper lines) being replaced or flushed. Replacement is best, but flushing is acceptable if the line diameter is the proper size and the flushing is done correctly.

This is very good equipment that needs to be installed properly preferably by a Carrier Factory Authorized dealer. The equipment needs to be registered with Carrier in order to get the 10 year parts warranty, otherwise it will default to 5 years.

Finally verify the coil part number has an ALA suffix. That is the aluminum coil which should give you many years of leak free service.

Thank you all for your feedback!

Tigerdunes - I can't seem to find our gas/electricity rates (it's a long story), but we had 4 contractors come through and none of them recommended as heat pump, so I assume there's a reason for that. Based on a quick Google search, it looks like heat pumps aren't as common in northern Virginia... All I can find are the amounts we paid for power and gas the last 12 months:DatePowerGas4/1/2015$57.95$47.635/1/2015$64.62$32.446/1/2015$113.75$29.987/1/2015$146.62$19.668/1/2015$154.65$30.139/1/2015$119.72$24.7910/1/2015$60.14$52.4611/1/2015$39.90$74.9912/1/2015$77.61$92.401/1/2016$100.34$132.622/1/2016$101.48$149.843/1/2016$56.55$54.194/1/2016$43.18$44.03

Mike_home - We were sized for 3.5 tons, but since the 2-stage A/C units only come in full numbers, we were rounded up to 4 tons. We will register the equipment, and confirm the ALA suffix - thank you for the tips!

Wow, those numbers didn't format very well. Let me try again:

Date, Power, Gas

4/1/2015, $57.95, $47.63

5/1/2015, $64.62, $32.44

6/1/2015, $113.75, $29.98

7/1/2015, $146.62, $19.66

8/1/2015, $154.65, $30.13

9/1/2015, $119.72, $24.79

10/1/2015, $60.14, $52.46

11/1/2015, $39.90, $74.99

12/1/2015, $77.61, $92.40

1/1/2016, $100.34, $132.62

2/1/2016, $101.48, $149.84

3/1/2016, $56.55, $54.19

4/1/2016, $43.18, $44.03

Sorry but not my duty to interpret your rates, your job, not mine. To provide a good fuel comparison between the two fuels, I need your electric rate price/KWH and nat gas rate price/therm. I am surprised that most homeowners don't have an idea what their costs are.

IMO

Yea, unfortunately, my husband is the one who pays the utilities, and since he autopays them, he doesn't know where the rates are...

I suggest if you want to pursue whether there is any operational cost advantage to run heat pump over nat gas in a dual fuel system, that you call your utilities tomorrow and get your rates. Trust me, it's quite easy...

IMO

That's a good price if the contractor knows what he's doing and does a quality install. It'll end up being an awful price if he's a hack doing this on the side!

Tigerdunes - I finally managed to get the pricing for gas and electricity to see whether a heat pump makes sense. What do you think? Could we get away without one?

Electricity:

2.24 cents per KwH for first 800 KwH

1.27 cents after that

Gas:

47 cents per Therm for first 25 Therm

30 cents per Therm after that

Living in NoVA, I can tell you that those electric rates are too low.

I have Dominion which should be the same as yourself. The rates are broken up into two parts: Distribution and Supply. Supply is also broken down further. They also vary for winter/summer. To see the exact rates, you would need to look at the tariff.

Off of my April bill, ignoring taxes and credits, $90.96 / 769 kwH = $0.118/kwh.

Yes, there is a step rate above 800kwH but I think it lowers slightly.

11 cents would be fine for a cost estimate.

Oh, and I paid something around $7k for a 2.5ton single stage Trane system a few years ago. Fair amount of labor removing the old indoor system, running new electrical and refrigerant lines, etc.

Thank you Weedmeister - I called Dominion to confirm and those are the numbers they gave me, but I trust you over them.

Sorry VM...Weed is correct...those rates are not, I say not, all inclusive costs that make up your true cost/KWH...

TD

I paid $2500 for this exact unit (4 ton; 17 seer; 2 stage), which was made in March 2022. Found EPA certified HVAC tech freelancing on Facebook Marketplace to install for $1000. Total cost = $3500. Everything is perfect!

Perfect, except you probably don't have a parts or labor warranty. And I suspect the best HVAC techs rarely freelance so who knows what kind of job was done.

This 5 year old thread should have been left in its resting place.

That price is not representative of even a typical "great" price. Something's funny there. Was it used equipment? Stolen? Carrier doesn't sell its high end equipment on the internet so it's provenance is questionable.