[red-beard]

Mike, most of the discussion here is theoretical. The reality is you need to get someone out to your place to do a review. You aren't cooling THAT much space. I've been to your place a few times. You aren't dropping the temp as much as I have to do here in Texas. I expect that your ducting will be adequate and the most straight forward system will be a standard "split" AC system.

I live in a permit free zone. You do not. You need to get this work done by a licensed AC person. Use Angies list or get one of the pelicans here to help you find a good AC guy.

The main thing to understand: a 13 SEER system is a good system. A 15 SEER system is more efficient, but will only save you 13% in electrical cooling costs. You need to do the cost to payback evaluation.

I was quoted replacement of both of my AC systems to 15 SEER units for about ~$10K. The same system quoted to 24 SEER was $30K. This will never pay back at $0.089/kWh.

If my electricity was $.25/kWh, it might pay back. You will need to work this out.

FWIW, I went with replacing just the condensers with 13SEER units, total cost $3K. It was impossible to even pay $10K for updated system for the slight energy efficiency improvement.



James