It's a gimmick like regular AC is a gimmick for cooling. what does that even mean? dehumidification is a gimmick and a/c is a gimmick?? doesn't make sense to me. dehumidification is a necessary thing in my hot humid climate. there are different ways to achieve it each with its own pros & cons stand alone dehumidifiers pro is low cost cons are where to locate centrally & how to drain operation cost noise of dehumidifier whole house dehumdiification systems pro is dehumidification of the whole house cons are cost issues with proper install operating costs introduction of heat back into a home in a cooling climate vs & two stage equipment pro is dehumidification if system is sized, designed & correctly installed low operating cost cons are hvac company installing 5 ton set at 3 ton speed, and cost to homeowner to purchase oversized equipment hvac company having little to no experience with higher end/tech equipment. when operation isn't understood saying it doesn't work is a common response. much easier than saying that is isn't understood. hvac companies often do this when asked for equipment installs they know little about. to me it is a good thing. at least they admit it so you are then freed up to go to a company that invests in education instead of just doing the same old same old as taught to them originally. in my house I planned to dehumidify..kinda need that in hot humid Louisiana..my dehumidification plans were to use vs ahu. it works well. but in August/September when temps & humidity are the highest...the whole house dehumidifier is a huge bonus. the vs ahu simply can't get RH below 55%, but the aprilaire can. if you are building new..you have every chance to get it done right. why not take advantage of it? best of luck.

Tigerdunes, you are correct in most aspects, but the selling back excess is the sticky point right now. The selling of electricity to the utility from renewable power sources by individual customers is governed by local PUCs. In some places, you get nothing or virtually nothing for excess. Furthermore, in places you lose any excess at the end of the month, it does not roll over. Others, maybe you can't roll over at the end of the year. Some net metering agreements require the utility to pay the customer if there is a chronic overproduction. In some of those cases, you only get paid when you disconnect from the utility. (When you move or die.) That is like a no interest bank account/retirement fund. The agreement is so bad in some areas that with the price of panels going so low, homeowners are better off buying batteries. That is something not dreamed of as economic not long ago. Installing big water heaters or freezing ice and using it to cool the home at time of high demand are alternatives. Definitely consider that the lifetime equipment costs of running a furnace vs, a heat pump when doing calculations to determine cost and environmental impact. I don't know if the ability to recover retail cost of excess power can tip the balance to make a heat pump favorable or not, but it might.

Ok, I did some lengthy searching and looking on this comfort bridge stuff. From what I have found thus far it is a complete 180 from the 'communicating system' that is controlled via the comfort net stat. If you have the comfort bridge furnace, I don't think the comfort net stat will work with it from what I can see thus far. The document I found is so new, the ink has barely had a chance to dry. If you understand manufacturer cycles and how long it takes to get products from development to actually in someone's home... well Goodman was never known for that. So this is likely a 'Daikin' parent company type change / stunt whatever you want to call it. To say this properly.... you can have a communicating system using normal simple R, Y, G, W, and possibly C for thermostat control (IF AND ONLY IF) you have the comfort bridge furnace. So in this way, the thermostat wires are normal legacy type wires or 24v analog signal. What they've done is made changes to the system board and moved the communicating function to that board and off the previously mentioned thermostat. Now here's where things get dicey and complicated: In addition to needing the comfort bridge furnace it has to be wired 'correctly'. What does that mean exactly? you have to know what you are doing. Because this comfort bridge furnace has the ability to control a 'non-communicating' legacy AC as well as the communicating version. All of this depends on 'how the system is wired'. If you don't know what you are doing the potential to get wires crossed is high. Mixing DC signal wires with AC voltage wires --- well you're going to tear something up if you do that. The GSXC16 is a communicating 2 speed condenser. However, it also has the ability to be wired with legacy 2 stage controls. In other words if the communicating furnace or comfort bridge furnace is not present it can be wired with legacy controls. BUT if this condenser is wired with legacy controls you will need stage 1, stage 2 and probably 24v hot and common wires. If this condenser is wired as communicating it only needs 2 communication wires from the comfort bridge furnace or the previously mentioned communicating furnace of yesteryear. So if you've managed to understand all that thus far... if the system is 'WIRED' as communicating AND this is indeed attached to a comfort bridge furnace you will not get this to work by running new 2 stage wires for heating or 2 stage wires for cooling. The comfort bridge (if it's present in your furnace) handles the switching from 1st stage to 2nd stage via the communication aspect. (The signal is digital in this sense) THE KEYPOINT IN ALL OF THIS IS: IT DEPENDS ON HOW THE SYSTEM IS WIRED. I believe this change is primarily to allow someone to change the thermostat without causing damage to the systems control board. To many DIY's and OR low skilled installers that don't understand that mixing voltages don't mix. It's either that or it's a cost cutting move... but I suppose it could also be a combination of the two. I service the Katy, Texas area.

A two speed AC is more energy efficient, but only slightly. Most two speed air conditioners unload the compressor in 1st stage. Most manufacturer's it's around 70% of capacity of the machine. When 2nd stage calls, the compressor loads up to 100% of capacity. Back when these first came out they were all the rage here because there was nothing better. But time changes things and here the better option is Inverter. The compressor in these is fully able to ramp up and down. One such model has over 50 speeds. Some manufacturers models limit the number of speeds... many ways to do it depending on controls, what the goal is of the manufacturer. When it comes to Carrier brand the inverter realm of theirs gets into proprietary equipment controls and such. Many other manufactures are the same way. So if they stop making the controls... well that doesn't spell anything good for you if you own one. In terms of efficiency savings? an inverter AC can cut your light bill in half. I installed an inverter at my home in late 2019. It's not a Carrier brand. Is an inverter AC for everyone? No. It fully depends on what comfort means to you. There are risks as with anything else. One risk that effects everything is the new freon phase down. What happened to R22 Freon is now going to happen to R410a. By 2023 for California, other areas probably not much long after that.