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Sized for July, and then asked to do January
The cooling load and the heating load are two different calculations. In this market the second one is frequently assumed from the first, and that is where the winter surprises come from.
The calls we take most
No cooling, or no heat
Diagnosed and priced before anything is fitted, with the repair figure given separately from any replacement figure so you can compare them yourself. Combustion tested and the heat exchanger inspected on anything that burns gas.
Upstairs will not cool
The standard complaint in a two-storey house with one system. Airflow at the upstairs registers against the downstairs ones, static pressure, return capacity and the state of the attic runs, before anybody discusses equipment.
A winter bill nobody can explain
On a heat pump this is usually the backup heat running when it did not need to. It is a controls and staging question rather than an equipment one, and it is frequently free to correct.
The outdoor unit iced up
Some frost on a heat pump in winter is normal and the machine clears it by itself. A solid block of ice is not. Which one you have decides whether it is a service call or something to watch.
Annual service
Coils, drains, filter fit, electrical connections, charge against the manufacturer’s target, combustion testing, and — before winter — the backup heat actually operated and measured rather than assumed to work.
Before you buy, sell or let
What is installed, how old each unit is from its serial number, what condition it is in and what putting it right would realistically cost. In writing, quickly.
Four things worth doing in October, none of which takes long
All four are cheap in autumn and impossible to arrange in the week everybody needs them.
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1 — Run the heat before you need it
Switch it on for twenty minutes on a mild day. A furnace that will not light, a heat pump that will not reverse or a set of heat strips that have failed are all things you would rather discover in October than at six in the morning in February.
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2 — Have the backup heat measured, not assumed
On a heat pump the electric backup is a separate system that may not have run since last winter. Amp draw on each stage tells you whether it is all there. A failed element is invisible until the day it matters.
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3 — Check the staging and the emergency switch
Know where emergency heat is on your thermostat and what it actually does, because it is expensive and it is not meant to be the normal setting. A system staged badly runs it far more than it needs to.
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4 — Look at where the outdoor unit sits
Clear of drifting leaves, clear of a gutter that drips onto it, and raised enough that a defrost cycle can drain away rather than freeze into a block under the coil. Ten minutes with a rake, and it prevents the commonest freeze failure there is.
The most common layout here, and the one that needs the most care
A single system serving both floors has to move air a long way up and then persuade it to come back. Heat rises, the upstairs gains it all afternoon, and the returns are usually downstairs where they were cheapest to fit.
What we measure: airflow at every register on both floors, static pressure against the equipment’s rated limit, and return capacity upstairs specifically. Those three numbers usually explain the complaint without anybody buying anything.
What actually fixes it, cheapest first: adding return capacity upstairs; repairing and re-supporting the attic runs, which in these houses have often sagged or come apart; balancing the system so the downstairs is not taking the air; and only then, if the measurements still say so, zoning or a second system.
Four things we say to homeowners here
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Emergency heat is not a winter setting
It bypasses the efficient part of the system and runs the expensive part on its own. Use it when the heat pump has genuinely failed, not when it is cold.
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Some frost on a heat pump is normal
The machine defrosts itself and steams a little doing it. A solid block of ice, or frost that never clears, is a fault. Knowing the difference saves a callout.
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Age alone is not a reason to replace
A system that holds its charge, moves the air it should and passes its safety checks works, whatever the year on the label. Age changes the arithmetic on an expensive repair and nothing else.
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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.