so heres the scoop: We have a 5 ton unit, need around a 3 ton unit for our size of house. No heat pump, and the furnace is propane.
We'd like to go all electric and need the appropriate size a/c unit.

For shits and giggles we had ab may come out today. With what they had on sale for 7900 installed we could get:

xr15i: 15 seer 3 ton unit (heat pump)
filter type asama (sp?) filter unit (this is vs a electic unit the has ion, filter is like 1 foot thick!)
electric furnace thats variable speed
fully automated touch pad controls with programming bla bla
10 yr parts and labor warraunty

7900.00

the price is basicly the a/c unit, and the filter. The monthly special gives a free furnace with touchpad for free if you buy "certain" units.
Reg price would be around 12000, and I even talked him down another 400 bucks for that 7900 price.. he said thats the best they can do.

is it worth it?
I mean I have to figure propane vs electric, then efficency vs monthly bill, then savings vs cost of new stuff.

7900 is alot of money but , whats everyones opinion from past experience?

paul?
rodney?
anyone else?

help, dont want to waste my money, but I'd like to make the house as best as possible while I do have the money and on top of that have something thats going to last me awhile.

I would definitely call around, ask the neighbors who they have used. AB May is not known as one of the cheaper places.

we have ab may and there arent that cheap, as far as i know. but they are good. i can say that.

Get another quote or two. Fortunately, I haven't bought a furnace recently, so I don't know how competive that price is.

I bought the Trane unit that you are looking at, it was one of the best investments on my house. My wife talked to an installer in Grain Valley, and the price was decent. I will get the details from her when she gets home. Anyways, the installer and the electric company worked together and basically what ended up happening is, the electric company bought it for us, and we are paying them back in $50 a month payments extra to the electric bill. Now the gas furnace we have will supplement the unit if it gets below a certain temperature, it never kicked on last year. So our gas bill went away, and with natural gas prices going the way of normal gas prices, it was a sound investment. My electric bill dropped considerably too, but the extra $50 brought it back up to where it was at. So overall, I lost a natural gas bill. I will tell you this much, it is an incredible unit, very well worth the investment.

ya, we dont know what our bills our going to be yet since we just got it and aren't moving in til jan'ish.

Right now we have a propane heater in the garage, propane water heater , propane furnace and a 5 ton unit a/c no heat pump far as we know. The furnace in the house is fairly new, the a/c unit is probally 4-7 yrs old , but to big we need a 3 ton unit. The water heater is old as well. All the ducting and everything in the house is fairly new, so thats one thing we are lucking out on.