Best residential HVAC setup

[jkaetz]

Sorry for reviving an old thread...

CM, we're building a home in Trafalgar this summer and I'm doing some HVAC research to figure out what we go with. I've been leaning toward a hybrid system with a heatpump and LP gas backup. But after reading your comments about problems, I'm considering just going with a high efficiency LP gas system and calling it done. With this being new construction, I spend more on insulation and less on the HVAC unit with a simpler unit likely being easier for me to work on anyway.

Any additional guidance on what to look for in a hybrid unit if I do decide to go that way? The setup DocIndy mentioned sounds interesting as well.

Just curious if you had any update on the topic.

Mike

EDIT: This will be our last home, no more kids and just the wife and I.

Just went through a replacement. My primary goal was a multi stage system with enough capacity for Indiana's extremes but a lower stage to handle the less extreme days. We ended up working with DocIndy and settled on a Payne/Carrier/ICP NG variable speed furnace and the Bosh heat pump he mentions with a couple of Honeywell IAQ thermostats to control the staging. Our house was built by Drees in 2012, HVAC was setup as a single stage system with two zone dampers to send air to the main or upper floor depending on temps. The original system was undersized and terribly inefficient with only a single stage and the two zones. The ducting has been augmented and the new system runs on the first stage most of the time while the 2nd stage can be used to recover from a setback or more extreme temps. Since the heat pump adjusts to the demand on the coil it frequently runs on a pretty low speed and very quietly, I have literally stood next to it while on a phone call and the other person could not hear it running. Given that we have NG available I had originally planned to use the NG to heat and the heat pump only for the mild days and AC but when we got it installed it happened to be in the upper 30's and the heat pump was still putting out 100 degree air at the registers so I'll have to play with it this winter to see where the optimal change over from heat pump to NG is. Cold air is coming out around 50. Since we've had it less than a month I can't speak to costs but I expect it to be less than the old equipment.