I wanted to come back and update... and offer thanks to those who were willing to offer what they could.
To follow up, my electric bills went to literally DOUBLE and worse. Unreal.
I swapped out the thermostat for another like it. It started to perform much better. I mean it still runs a lot more than my old unit, but not as much as it was with the previous thermostat.
My power bill pretty much dropped back to normal for one month. December has given it a real workout though. I ended up dragging the tester back out and messing around with my fan speed some more... and made some changes that increased my heat temp at the register. That seemed to help... and for whatever reason, this caused my master area to go back to being hotter than the rest of the house as it used to be with the old system.
But here again my bill is real high. But others are complaining the same thing, so I am going to assume for now that it's the Christmas gouge and wait to see what the next bill looks like.
Overall, I think these days my house is more comfortable at all times than it was before... and if the normal electric bills return again, I will assume this thing runs more while consuming around the same energy. Some day I think I will buy another totally different thermostat that has the features this one does, but also allows me to set how much the temp changes before it cycles back on. I also don't like how I don't know my backup heat is cycled on unless I feel or smell it.
As for my fan setup, I am still confused and unhappy with it. It is different now and does not seem to operate at variable speeds like it did before this install. Haven't quite figured that out.
As for the Rheem stuff... as an end user I am just going to be bluntly honest. I still have the belief this equipment might just be of higher quality than what I had. But outside of that I would be lying if I said I was impressed with it otherwise.
Frankly I am not really impressed at all with the abilities or the operation. Noise is one aspect of it. It's not really quite inside nor out. And it will at times make some strange noises outside occasionally that really concerned me at first. I have since figured out other ones I have paid attention to do it as well occasionally just like mine does. And I can hear the unit cycling outside sometimes, and the defrost is loud too.
And while I am thinking about defrost, it does not take much for it to trip into defrost... which cycles my backup heat. I noticed this when I first started using the heat... heard a weird noise outside and smelled the strips come on for the first time. I walked out in confusion. Still yet, I find that it never has visible frost/ice I can see. Don't know if this is normal for Rheem or not???
As for the indoor coil, again looks like a nicer piece... but I am certain it does not flow near as well, and it creates more noise. I swear when I open my door, it sounds like my fan slows down? Very wierd... can't tell if it really does that or if it is just a reduction in noise.
In the end, unless this system wins me over during the life of it, I do not believe I will own Rheem again. I believe I will instead go with some other unit that many installers peer down their noses at because it is not a Rheem or a Rudd or a Trane or whatever... I just think I will redistribute the saved beans into better efficiency, more BTU, upgrading the indoor coil, TXV, and so forth....
Not trying to ruffle any feathers with that, just trying to be honest and offer up some end-user feedback for those of you that have some appreciation for insight coming from your potential customer's point of view.
