"Bill" wrote in message
oups.com...
Looking at replacing our 15 yr old 3 ton Trane (10 seer) with a new 3
1/2 ton 14 seer American Standard or Trane with a variable speed air
handler. Reasons are mainly to save energy both cooling and heating
costs.

Why are you going larger? If not needed, it may cost you more to operate
and not work as well if it is oversized. If it was undersized to start,
different story. More is not better with AC.

Do some number crunching. It can take a long time to recover $4000 in
costs. If you are spending $2400 a year and save 10%, it will take 16 years
to break even and at that point, it may be worn out.