It's an HVAC SATURDAY! Single vs Variable stage. What you got?

I have 2 stage 16 seer heat pump.
I have installed many bryant 2 stage systems, and 1 Rheem econet.

2 stage with a variable speed indoor unit is absolutely better than single stage.

It removes humidity much better. It finishes off the cycle in stage one with a slow blower. It covers the worst spectrum of outside temps, and those milder days.

You can design a single stage system to work pretty well also. You have to be on with your sizing. And you need to select an indoor unit that has the Dehum terminal feature. And select a Humidistat that has the dehum terminal.

If humidity rises in % above what you set it at, for Carrier / bryant you would program the stat to OPEN the dehum circuit, thereby taking 24 volts away from the dehum terminal. This will slow the blower down which supercools the evap coil. A super cold coil removes humidity fast.

Amazing equipment today.

My 4 ton runs 2.8 tons most of the time.
Stage one. If needed, stage 2 is there.

Electric bill will go down.

Just make sure you register each component serial number with the manuf website for 10 years warranty. Otherwise you’ll get 5 years.

If you have gas heat, there will be 3 serial numbers .

Electric heat—- 2 serial numbers. The electric heat kit follows the air handler serial number, so you don’t enter a serial for the heat kit

The humidity thermostat, follow warranty instructions. There are many choices so just follow registration instructions for each

for the lower level, 3.5 ton and 3 ton 16 SEER Trane. 3 stage heating, 2 stage cooling .12 fan speeds (i'm reading from the quote sheet)
plus there's a 2.5 ton 14 SEER upstairs that we don't really use.

Single stage AC went out in May thankfully before summer heat wave. Replaced it with TRANE 2-stage 2.5 ton 17 seer system. Much more efficient but doesn’t really matter when the power company chooses to jack everyone’s bill up 12% across the board. If you replace one of your single stage units to a two-stage, it’ll give your other single stage unit a break.

2 Stage systems do not come in 1/2 of tons.

I have a 2 stage 5 ton Ruud unit that replaced an early 1980's Rheem. Good or bad, technology marches on with time and in this case it's good. It's a much more efficient unit handling cooling, humidity and overall operation.

I have a variable speed carrier. Would be hard to go to anything else when I replace it. Temp and humidity always stable and quieter. I don't care the cost at this point.

Also if you haven’t gotten a google nest thermostat, make sure you do that.

Yea I am not pretending to be a pro lol, like the auburn guy said earlier, just reading the old quote. But they had to replace my whole furnace and everything too. I have the trane xr model and it looks like they may not make that anymore?

I have run my 2-stage 2-ton in both 2-stage and 1-stage. When I wired it to run as a single-stage 2-ton system, it maintained humidity (43-45% with dew points between 70-80F) just as well as operating as 2-stage.

I think the absolute most important aspect of efficiency and comfort with HVAC is having it properly sized. oversized systems just flat out suck donkey balls.