- Home
- Homes
Houses across Monroe County
Rochester, Brighton, Irondequoit, Greece and Penfield. Long heating seasons, older stock, and a great many houses on their third appliance connected to their original ductwork.
What we check, in cost order
The thermostat and the switch
Whether it is actually calling, whether its batteries are flat, and whether the emergency switch has been knocked. Worth thirty seconds before anybody drives out.
The filter and the condensate
A restricted filter makes a furnace overheat and stop on its limit. A frozen condensate line does the same thing and is specific to this climate — a line run through an unheated space will freeze in January every year until it is rerouted.
Ignition, flame sensing and the inducer
Three attempts and a lockout is usually the ignition sequence telling you about itself rather than about the whole appliance. These are parts, not projects.
Circulators, zone valves, expansion vessel
Where boiler faults actually live. A radiator cold at the top is usually air; cold throughout is usually a valve or a circulator that has stopped.
The heat exchanger
Where one is compromised the appliance is shut off rather than repaired. That is not a negotiation and it never will be, whatever the forecast is doing.
The two faults this climate adds
Frozen condensate. High-efficiency furnaces and boilers produce water and it has to drain. A line run through a cold crawlspace, an unheated garage or against an outside wall freezes, the appliance stops on a safety, and it looks like a failure. Rerouting it is a small job and it is permanent.
Buried outdoor units. A heat pump or a condenser at ground level spends part of the winter partly covered, and defrost water has to be able to leave the base rather than freeze under it. Raised brackets are not an upgrade here, they are the correct installation.
Neither of those is exotic. They are simply the difference between an installation designed for Rochester and one designed for a catalogue.
Before a quotation exists
- A load calculation for your houseRoom by room, from orientation, glazing, shading, insulation and use. Not from the badge on the old appliance, which in a house this old has usually been replaced twice already.
- Static pressure measuredAgainst the blower’s own rating. Original ductwork carrying its third appliance is the commonest reason a new system disappoints.
- Condensate routed through heated spaceOn any high-efficiency appliance. This is the single most preventable winter call-out in this county.
- Outdoor equipment mounted for winterRaised, with clear space beneath it to drain.
- Permit filedWith the city or town office covering your address, and named in the quotation.
- Commissioned with numbersCombustion figures, airflow, temperature rise or split, written down and left with you.