The person visiting the home needs to be able to answer the customer's questions. If he or she cannot then you need to find another contractor. Here are some basic questions you can ask: How long have you been in business? Are you insured and licensed to install HVAC systems? How many trucks and employees do you have? Are you a factory authorized dealer for the equipment you sell? Will you do a load calculation before signing a contract? Will you show me the load calculation and explain the results? Will you review the duct work to determine if it is the proper size? Will you quote several configurations of equipment and explain the benefits and costs? Will your quote provide the model numbers of all the equipment and services you propose to provide? Will you file for the required permits? What are the terms of the warranty and is it backed by the manufacturer? Will you register the equipment for the warranty? Are there any manufacturer's rebates and who will receive the funds?

hrv for cold climates erv for hot humid climates. it matters what your location is. adding fresh air or make up air is easy. how much to add, is the question. was a blower door test performed on the house? what were the air changes per hour? using the blower door numbers, & volume of the house, ach is calculated. once amount of air required is determined then you make choices of how to do it. La. for instance is hot humid climate. an energy recovery ventilator will cost you approx $1200 installed. but a better choice is a whole house dehumidifier with fresh air intake. for a few hundred more. there are other methods of adding fresh air like barometric dampers etc. some work very well. you'd do best to find out how tight the house is. and go from there. best of luck

I will try to look this up on the directory but first you need to verify the model numbers you listed especially the furnace. What is your location and size of your home? I question the need for a 100 KBTU furnace. Has this system been installed? TD

So in other words, if we were house flippers, which we are not, we would be breaking even if we sold it today. I don't want to get too much deeper into this. You have to understand that home ownership is often times trade offs... you get the use out of something for a period of time. What's the value in that? I understand the conundrum of thinking you are losing money over this or that. But there is a use factor while you are living there. Kitchen remodels or any remodel if you are paying for this service to a contractor to perform it's quite rare that it will pay you back every nickel you spent on it. But because you live there, you get to 'use' it for a time. What is that worth? If your time horizon is less than 5 years at this property you're in a big crunch as to what to do, which do you value more? (money or comfort?) Realize though that someone will need to be convinced to buy this eventually when you finally do decide to leave. So think about this conundrum more about than just merely not being profitable. If your motivation is purely to be profitable, fix it up -- spend the money... get the use out of it. Then when you move rent the property for a time to recoup the expenses. Being a landlord isn't for everyone, but if you want to be 'profitable' it's one way to get money out of a property. If you don't want to be a landlord (later on) your options are few to get what you want / how you want to live in such a short period of time [5 years].