heat pump, central air and heat and a mini split as far as cost of operation? heat pump same as central air and heat except that the heat pump provides the bulk of the heat. this is what I recomend to my clients based on savings compared to electric strip heat. with heat pumps the electric strip is emergency heat and for when temps are 30 degrees..which is not that often for us. central air is electric strip heating only. the most expensive way to heat your home. (espically if you have entergy for your utility provider) mini splits are pretty cool. expensive but fit a lot of needs and great for tight retrofit spots. the condensing unit goes outside like with any set up, but this is where it changes. in each room the air is provided by a wall mounted air handler unit. the condensing units are up to 3 tons. each room would have the ahu..this is what they are calling zones. cost is higher, but you don't have ductwork, so it evens out a little better. with the foam insulation & low e windows your tonnage of ac required will be less. although I don't recomend 'rule of thumb' sizing instead of the ususal 400 to 500 sq ft per ton, your house will be more in the range of 600 to 700 sq ft per ton. oversizing will cost more to operate, wear the equipment out sooner, and will NOT dehumidify. be diligent in finding out what is being spec'd for your home and what options are available for you. some systems will qualify for tax credit, and it is always a good idea to do better than the legal minimum allowed by law (code). in what part of La. are you building? best of luck.

texsun fun....another opinion to balance the other posts. Jandy has a new Aqualink Touch that I've been checking out. It looks pretty cool with a touch screen and one touch buttons with macro capability..the scrolling controller just-a-pb mentions is Jandy's entry level controller so not really a fair comparison in my opinion. The Aqualink touch is more in line with the Intellitouch as far as features and pricepoint. As far as I can tell...it does not offer the smartphone interface or internet interface that Intellitoch offers...so that alone may take it off the table as an option for you. Maybe worth asking your PB about this feature as it sounds like they are familiar with Jandy controllers and this is an important option for you. The Aqualink does offer control of triple source heating devices via internal logic. The catch is one of the heat sources has to be dedicated specifically to the spa...either a heat pump or gas. For example, if the gas heater is dedicated to the spa, then the controller will control the spa temp internally while also controlling the heat pump / solar for the main pool with assignable priority for either solar or heat pump. The other catch is the heat pump has to have RS485 communication capability to interface to the Aqualink system when solar is also present...without the RS485 interface, the temperature will be controlled by the heat pump itself when solar is present. Sounds like your PB is familiar with Jandy equipment and may be able to offer some guidance in this area also. Hope this helps.

Alright I'm going to try and reply to everyone. sktn77a: I do not have the breakdown of the prices in front of me, but the total cost including installation is approximately $16,000 vs $18,200 vs $19,000. I did not mention that with the first option we are still getting an air conditioner, just not with the heat pump option. jn3344: Thank you for your feedback, this is the exact information I was looking for with this post. What was the temperature like for the $650 month? tigerdunes: Thank you for your opinion. We have had a heat load calculation done. David Cary: Thank you for your feedback. We have not considered solar, as we could only put them on the east side of our roof, our house is in the middle of the woods so a lot of shade, and we have no room to mount them anywhere besides the roof. And yes, the ducts will all be in a conditioned space. armoured: We are doing a tankless hot water system, and as explained above, solar will not work with where we are located. Thanks for your feedback. Springtime Builders: We are going to have propane on site whether we choose a heat pump system or not. Gas stove is a must, as well as a propane generator. "You could have a safer, healthier and more affordable home by replacing those combustion appliances with electric." I do not agree with this at all, but that is for a different conversation on a different day. There's also no hidden costs with gas, I have them all accounted for. We are purchasing our own propane tank and are having it buried. All supply piping is accounted for as well as any ventilation requirements. Thanks for your comments Elmer J Fudd and mike_home.

Hi Elmer I read through your comments strongly supporting NG over HP option due to its cost advantage. Do you know a 10 KW solar system can be installed in CA today for $15000 after tax incentive , which will generate approx. 15000 KwH of electricity per year ? I am exactly doing this for my 1995 built 3375 sq ft home in bay area as this appears to be the cheapest route to bring down my energy cost as compared to other options like improve insulation, change windows or upgrade 1995 installed 80% efficient NG furnace etc. Till my NG furnace is alive and kicking, I plan to use it minimally in the morning to take the chill out of the home and rely on supplemental electrical heating ( resistive ) to keep the house warm . Resistive heating is inefficient, but ok as stop gap option particularly if my electricity is coming from solar. When it's time to bid farewell to these antique NG fired machines, I plan to take HP route for my home heating and air conditioning. Even without any of these actions and just install of solar, my current electricity only bill will be reduced from $2800 / year ( 10000 KwH ) to zero. That will pay for solar install cost in just 5 years. Add to it cost saving from an electric car ( which I don't have at this time ), payback is even shorter. My yearly NG heating consumption is 700-750 therms. The baseline consumption of 20 therms / month or 250 therms / year will always remain due to NG cooking appliance and NG water heater. But the rest 500 therms / year NG consumption can be eliminated when I replace central ducted existing NG Furnace / AC system with ducted heat pump (no splits). There will be more upfront cost to install heat pump as compared to NG furnace / AC option , but I am hoping this differential to be in the range of $2-3K , particularly if I go with heat pump option like MrCool Universal ( will work well in temperate Bay Area weather ) instead of fancy Fujitsu or Mitsubishi heat pumps. And saving of $1000 from eliminating consumption of 500 therms / year should help offset this cost sooner rather than later. Due to these considerations, I decided to go for 10KW Solar System that gives me enough capacity of solar generated electricity to meet these loads. Time to give a fresh look to all ( almost ) electric home with recent price reduction ( actually since June, 2020 ) in solar install cost.