Hi scottspond, some how didn't think she would, Florida vs Manchester, no contest really ;-) The area I live in is New Mills, in High Peak in Derbyhsire. If it doesn't ring a bell, it's just past Lyme park, Buxton is about 2 miles away, Stockport 9 miles and Manchester 20 miles (all via road) Handily the railway station is about 5 mins away from my home, so trips to Manchester are pleasent through the countyside and don't require I use the car ;-) And in summer I get to hop on the odd steam trian, every boys dream. My Mancunian mates reckon I've gone "all posh" living here, as I was born and grew up in Fallowfield and went to school in Rusholme. Regards ChrisC.

Yes we do have a very different view of the zones. Mainly for me, that is because I think the USDA zone map is "somewhat" useful in a limited way if I apply it to plants that I want to landscape my yard with. Its a "loose guide" for me, no more, when landscaping. Mainly because it only deals with COLD temps. You have to use a separate criteria for HEAT here in the South. There's no one map. I think that's a shortcoming. I know a separate heat index map does exist. But as far as the USDA zone map is concerned, I find it a lot more useful for my greenhouse. I am in zone 8B. However, I am still able to grow many plants in my yard that are supposedly only labeled for zone 9 and above. If I gardened by what books said about the zones certain plants would live in, and paid attention to the zone maps, I would be shortchanging myself on growing a lot of neato plants that actually do very well here. I do find the concept of "zone" imminently useful inside the greenhouse though. I have plants growing and blooming in a zone 11 environment that are supposedly "zone 10 and above" plants that friends of mine in South FL zone 10 have not been able to get to bloom in their yards. I have to wonder, if I turned down the heat, would they still do as well? Probably not. When I first moved to FL in the very early 1990's from Los Angeles, I was stunned at all that could be bloomed here, in the ground and even just in CONTAINERS in my zone 8B, that could not be bloomed in the zone 10-11 So Cal environment. Certain gingers, heliconias, vines, orchids, they will do so well here even if you have to stash them in a freeze, and they wouldn't do well in So Cal even in a "frost free" environment. I asked "Why?" many years later on a forum that was heavily weighted with West COast people, and the answer seems to be "heat accumulation". Even though So Cal where I lived was a zone 10-11 and rarely if ever actually freezes, its too cold at night most of the year, and too cool in the day most of the year, to afford the continuous heat needed by certain plants to thrive and bloom. So when I set up my greenhouse, I had to think, "How do I want to do this?" Because actually, In FL, its much harder to cool the greenhouse in summer than it is to heat it in winter. I decided that I wanted a "conservatory style" planted greenhouse instead of a greenhouse that had benches to set stuff on, and that if I was going to go to that type of setting, I wanted it to be a jungle with everything that I could never leave out all year here. So if I was going to commit to THAT, I decided, zone ELEVEN conditions were what I wanted. Anything that can take a zone 8B winter, even if it goes dormant and comes back as a "perennial", or gets leaf burn but survives, does not merit the zone 11 greenhouse. Only stuff that would never bloom or live in zone 8B, or is expensive of somewhat rare, gets to be in the zone 11 greenhouse. Maybe that's a simplistic attitude on my part. I don't pay a lot of attention to how much it costs to run the greenhouse. I only keep records for tax purposes, because I do run a small mail order plant business and have to report income and expenses. If I was a huge business entity I would probably think I needed to have a more formulaic approach to the greenhouse, but I'm just not. I admire people like you who have all that scientific stuff going for them. Its just not my focus. I'm more into just cranking up some Blue Eyed Christ, getting out the fertilizer and piddling around in my greenhouse. I don't like to think about it too much.

So I got a better bid today from a different dealer for the 126B 3 1/2 ton A/C. And the reason it was better is they measured the coil case and figured out they could put the new coil in the existing coil case (with a Bryant cover, not a Carrier cover) and save 3 1/2 hours of labor vs. removing the newly installed furnace. Does anyone see any problems with that? I kind of liked it as the furnace is working fine and I don't want it messed up. Also, the original dealer thinks we should get the 4 ton 126B since our old 3 1/2 ton A/C had trouble keeping up on hot days. Here is the AHRI #6364408. It is a generic listing, not for our furnace like the 3 1/2 ton is. Does that matter? They say they are confident it will work with my furnace, but does that impact the SEER, etc? I still have not heard anything re the new model that may be on the way, but the Bryant rep is at a training conference in Oregon so isn't as easy to get a hold of right now. I would appreciate any thoughts you guys have on these two proposals. Thanks, Cindy

I have 15 SEER Heat pump with vs ahu. propane for stove & water heater. best move I made was getting away from propane for heat. variable speed air handler unit keeps RH between 52-55%. I only hooked up half of my heat strips & only once has vs ahu gone into high speed. both times last winter...when we had 3 weeks of freezing temps. this is where I was heading with you op...but tiger dunes did it very well! just like you want to mastic seal ducts, air seal the ceiling/attic floor before insulating. air will still move from attic into conditioned space through the insulation. this will de-rate the insulation value & not let insulation perform at its R-value. caulk is a great air sealer. buy clear caulk with a long life. btw...lot of difference between 26 year old unit's efficiency & the ones you are choosing between. best of luck.