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For 50k+, you're probably better off improving your thermal envelope (insulation/air tightness) and going with a smaller HVAC unit.

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It is 4 zones with (effectively) 5 floors and a lot of square footage. Anderson gave us a great deal on high efficiency triple pane argon gas filled windows and I walked the home with a wireless thermometer to check for obvious insulation problems. What else could I do to improve the thermal envelope?

I've followed much of the advice in this cleantechnica series on this exact problem: https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/08/home-efficiency-101-app...

If you have enough insulation, I would recommend getting a blower door test done and see what your ACH50 is (air changes per hour at 50 pascals) to see how leaky your house is.

Improving the envelope is particularly important for geo heating and cooling. It makes sense to include that in the budget for a geo install.

I had a geo system installed last December (GeoComfort with 3 200 foot wells for a 120 year old, 1600 sqft house).

The system works great except that the point where the aux heat kicks in for my house is 25 degrees F. I am working this year to improve the envelope to reduce the need for aux heat.

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