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A long damp heating season, and a fortnight that makes the news
Most of the equipment we replace in Salinas houses is heating equipment, and most of the calls we get in September are about two rooms rather than about a house. Both of those shape what we recommend.
The calls we take most
No heat
A furnace or wall heater that will not light, lights and shuts down, or runs without warming the house. Diagnosed and priced before anything is fitted, with combustion tested and the heat exchanger inspected on anything that burns gas.
A room that is unbearable in a heat spell
Usually one or two rooms, usually west-facing, usually a bedroom. Before anybody prices a whole-house system we work out whether the problem is that room or the house, because the answers differ by a factor of five in cost.
Damp, condensation and stuffiness
A coastal valley with a long cool damp season produces a lot of this, and it is usually ventilation rather than heating. Extract that actually extracts, outside air where the code requires it, and a plain explanation of what a dehumidifier will and will not do.
Smoke season
When the air outside is bad, the ability to keep windows shut and still have tolerable air indoors matters. We will tell you what filtration your system can actually take without starving it, and what it cannot — and we will not make health claims about it.
Annual service
Burners, heat exchanger, flue, coils, drains, filter fit, electrical connections, charge and combustion, with the readings recorded so this year can be compared with last year.
Before you buy, or before you sell
What is installed, how old each unit is from its serial number, what condition it is in, and what putting it right would cost. In writing, quickly, because escrow does not wait.
The three routes, and which one suits which house
Through the existing ducts
If there is a furnace with ductwork, adding a cooling coil and an outdoor unit is often the obvious route. The catch is that ductwork sized for heating alone frequently will not carry the airflow cooling needs, and nobody finds that out until the system is in and disappointing.
So we measure first: static pressure, airflow at every register and return capacity. If the ducts cannot carry it, we say so before you buy anything, and price the duct work as part of the job rather than as a surprise afterwards.
Ductless heads
One outdoor unit and one indoor head per room. In this climate, where the real complaint is usually two bedrooms in September, this is very often both the cheaper and the better answer — it cools the rooms that are a problem, it can heat them too, and it does not depend on ductwork that may not exist.
The honest downsides: a visible indoor unit on the wall, a line set that has to run somewhere, and a cost per room that stops making sense past about three rooms.
Doing less, deliberately
Shade on west-facing glass, attic insulation and air sealing, a whole-house fan or simply a disciplined habit of opening up at night and shutting at nine in the morning. In a climate that cools off nearly every night, this works better here than it does almost anywhere else.
What it will not do: help during a genuine heat wave when the nights stay warm, or during smoke season when opening windows is the thing you are trying to avoid. We say which of those applies to you before you spend anything.
Four things we say to homeowners here
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Two rooms is not a whole-house problem
If the complaint is a west bedroom and a home office, price those two rooms before you price the house. The difference is large and the outcome is frequently better.
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Your heating ducts may not carry cooling
This is the single most common disappointment with an added air conditioning system in older houses. It is knowable in advance with an afternoon of measurement, and anybody who does not measure is hoping.
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Age alone is not a reason to replace a furnace
One that burns cleanly, passes its heat exchanger inspection and moves the air it should is one that works. Age changes the arithmetic on an expensive repair. It does not by itself justify a new machine.
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A gas appliance with no carbon monoxide alarm is the one urgent item
Everything else on this page can wait for a convenient week. That cannot. Fit one, and have the combustion tested and the heat exchanger inspected.