REFRIGERATE!

OK, we have a temporary solution to our AC problem. D checked in with a bunch of neighbors and was able to find two people willing to loan us window units. They're loud and annoying - and don't cool things very well. But they came in handy earlier this week with temperatures above 90. Truly hating our Cape Cod house right now, with a top floor that heats up to attic temperatures.

The fancy one we ended up finding for the baby's room is much better than the standard window unit in our room. It cooled down the whole upstairs significantly:

Even though it seriously looks like it wants to take over the planet:

In the meantime, we've got our quotes for a new central AC unit. It is...well let's just say significantly more expensive than we though is putting it mildly. We have two different quotes and probably should get a third, but the two are priced very similarly, so we suspect this is just the price we have to live with. Both quotes have pros and cons. We thought it was interesting that in both cases, the AC people only suggested one option - the bottom option. We actually had to go back to ask how much it would cost to get a better model. I would have expected a few options included in the original proposal.

Here is, more or less, what we had to decide. (Blogger doesn't use tables, so this is a screenshot from Excel.)

A few things to note - Company 1 says the Lennox unit is 16 seer but the product info on the Lennox webpage says it is 14 Seer. We thought this might have something to do with a new air handler, listed at 2 Seer, adding to the efficiency. Company 2 has not finalized paperwork to take part in our utility company's rebate, so unfortunately we lose out on some rebates there, though Carrier has some rebates that Lennox doesn't (in the annoying form of a visa gift card). Also the actual total for the 3rd option will cost a bit more because we would pay extra to have a wi-fi enabled thermostat.

In the end, immediate availability is impacting our decision quite a bit and we're opting for the 3rd option (the 2-stage AC from Company 2). The first company hasn't even gotten back to us on our request for prices of a higher-end model. We've used the first company before and like them, but they just have too much business right now to try hard to "sell" this to us. And we want something sooner.

What would you have done? Would you have gotten more quotes? Will we regret this incredibly costly decision? It doesn't help that we're likely entering a heat wave early next week.