Air conditioning and furnace replacement

Our air conditioner had been getting flaky. It would work sometimes, but on the hottest days, when we wanted it most, it would run for a short while and then freeze. It was leaking freon from the coil, and it was overdue to be replaced with a newer, more efficient, non-freon system. As we learned, it was a 25-year old unit (even though the house itself was only 17 years old, go figure), and it was never set up well, with a 5-ton furnace driving a 4-ton condenser and coil, no condensation drip pan or proper condensate drain lines, and other oddities. Though everyone who looked at it said our ducts were in great shape, and they were sure they'd been replaced, even though we know they're original to the house from 2001. We got five different bids, with a bewildering range of prices and advice, but we ended up going with Southland Heating and A/C, who gave us the most confidence that they knew what they were doing. We ended up going with a Ruud U802V 2-stage 100K BTU 80% furnace and Ruud RA14 5-ton 14-SEER condenser and coil. And a cool new Nest Learning Thermostat (3rd gen) that learns our patterns and can be controlled from an app on our phones. They also enlarged our return from a 14" to an 18" conduit, and switched to a more effective filter at the plenum instead of the return cover. It was quite a job, with a crew of six guys working for nearly twelve hours. And the crane they used to hoist the new condenser to the roof and take down the old one was quite impressive. I wasn't quite sure how it would work with our overhead power lines in front of the house, and having to reach over the garage to get to the main roof, but the crane operator was quite adept at solving such three-dimensional maneuvering challenges. So, as of late this evening, we have a whole new HVAC system.