I live in KY and the winters can be cold after December and summers are always humid with July and August being in the 90's. My heating and cooling contractor has serviced my home since it was built in 2000, 1500 sq. ft ranch with high ceilings and lots of windows. The original system was replaced at the builders request, due to being undersized, so I was told, and my complaints immediately after purchase. I have always had a service contract from this heating firm since day one. Strangely, on a number of occasions, they service the system and a few days or weeks later the system has a problem and they return and discover a problem that has developed since the scheduled tune-up that cost a service run that is at a reduced rate and a repair with reduced cost of parts due to my contract agreement. The second service call usually runs a couple hundered dollars. I have on occassion, twice, had to spend the night away from home because they could not get the repair finished and the temperature was very cold in my home. This was at the beginning and as I said, the unit was upsized at the builders request. However this has happened during the cooling season also. Anyway, on their last scheduled service run this happened again and the results was a discovered leak in my air conditioning unit and a recharge. When I asked if that was legal to recharge and not located the leak, the tech said yes and it would cost over $800 to use a light and located the leak either in my coil or at some other location. After locating the leak at that cost, I would be faced with the repair cost and have an old unit that could go out. They suggested with rebates and tax credit, I should consider a replacement of my 2.5 ton Goodman heating and cooling system. I requested a quote and they gave the following:

Bryant Basic 2.5 Ton outdoor unit 13 Seer, model 113ANA030, coil cnpup3017, 5yr comp. warranty, 5yr parts, 1yr labor

Indoor, gas furnace, model AAV03670,eff.80%,70,000 BTU,5yr parts, 1yr labor, 20yr heat ex $3700, no rebate, no tax credit

Bryant Elite,3 Ton unit 18 Seer, model 180ANA036, coil CNPUP4221,10yr warranty comp,10yr parts, 1yr labor

Indoor, 2 stage variable gas fur., model 315AAVO36070,80% eff., 70,000 btu, 20yr heat ex, 10yr parts, 1yr labor $8860,$1000 rebate, $1500 tax credit.

Byrant Heat Pump, model 265ANH036, 3Ton, 16 Seer, coil CNPUP 3617, 10yr warranty comp., 10yr parts, 1yr labor,

Indoor, gas fur., 2 stage variable, model AAVO48090, 90,000 BTU, 80% eff., 10yr parts, 20 yr heat ex, 1yr labor , $7754, $1000 rebate, $1500 tax credit. I am requesting a second and third quote from other firms, but I will not have a second Byrant quote. The other companies are American Standard dealers and Lennox. I am almost postive that I will be changing service contractors at the end of this contract period which calls for two visits per year. The current system is spotless because of the service visits and when it runs, it runs well. Any comments or suggestions. Thank you for this forum.