Well....it was about 105 here today and I believe my A/C has finally given out. :-(

I have been doing some reading and I am concerned about replacing the unit with the proper size. My house was built in 1995. It is 1650 sq feet and has 4 bedrooms. a kichen/living area a small main bathroom and a small laundry room. The bedrooms and the living area have vaulted ceilings that go from 8 - 10 feet. The house faces south and is exposed to full sun literally all day long. The dual pane windows in all hnesty probably leaked out long ago. It seems to be well insulated in the attic....about 12" of blown in. I have no idea about the walls. It has always been a struggle to keep the house cool. (This will be my 4th summer here). This may be due to the unit starting to fail when I moved in. Summer temperature here in Central Cali typically 90 - 105.

I has an HVAC guy come out last year to clean it and he said it may last a week...it may last 5 years. He said it could not be charged anymore and just clean it and use it until it dies. I thought they were pretty nice because he replaced the electrical whips for free and showed me how to clean it myself.

My question....sizing....I looked and the label is sun bleached so I can tell it is a goodman dual pack, it might be a 3 ton unit or 3.5. My questions are....

1) Based on what I have mentioned above...what size am I looking at? 3, 3.5, 4?
2) How much can I expect to pay for the unit installed?
3) I've read that most brands are identical and to go with the best warranty on a 13 or 16 seer a step or 2 over builder grade...true?

Thank you for your help! What a bummer...it's going to be 107 here tomorrow!

Mike