Comfortmaker is a brand of ICP, which is owned by Carrier. It is made in the same factory as Carrier. Like all the brands, their lower end stuff is quite cheaply made but their higher end stuff (which it sounds like you're getting) is quite nice.

You need to focus less on the brand and more on your contractor. When you say dual zone, do you mean there will be 2 units or one unit zoned with dampers? How big will the unit be? A bad install can make the highest end equipment perform poorly and an excellent install can make the cheapest junk work great.

There will be one unit outside and one in the attic space. I am waiting on the exact model names and numbers from my builder. At first they wanted to use a 2 zone 13 Seer system, but my husband and I didn't think that would be efficient, we will be all electric where we are.

Sorry, I phrased my question wrong, I meant will there be 2 systems. All split systems consist of an indoor unit and an outdoor unit. Many larger houses have 2 or more outdoor units, each with its own indoor unit. But, it sounds like you will only have one system, and will be zoning using dampers in the ductwork.

Air conditioners or heat pumps outdoors? Air handlers or furnaces indoors?

That type of zoning is difficult to execute correctly. The duct design itself needs to be top notch for it to work well. You should have a variable speed blower on the indoor unit and a 2 speed outdoor unit for best results. You also need the appropriate thermostat and zone panel to handle the multiple stages.

You need a good contractor to do this or you will end up with a noisy, inefficient, uncomfortable, and unreliable system. Is this a custom home, or a tract home? A lot of builder chosen contractors are chosen on price only and will not do a good job with such a complicated system. In most cases using the builder contractor I would recommend multiple systems over a single, zoned system.

deleted, double post

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Mon, Oct 27, 14 at 14:07