Evergreen Home Heating & Energy Blog

Can You Use Your Existing Ductwork When Converting to a Heat Pump?

There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding whether to switch from your existing central heating to a heat pump. How much will it cost? How much money will I save on my heating bills? How many days will the project take? 

One question we hear a lot is, “if I switch to a heat pump, can I use my home’s existing ductwork with the new system?” The answer to this question affects a couple of the above factors. Obviously, if your ductwork system needs to be replaced, the cost of your new heat pump system would increase dramatically. Also, a full ductwork replacement could lengthen an installation project by several days, depending on the size and layout of your current ductwork.

Ductless Rebates and Incentives to Fall From up to $1,700 down to $800 After December 25th

Seattle City Light has announced that their rebate for installing a ductless system is being lowered from $1,200 to $800. This is set to happen on January 1st, 2017. Currently, Mitsubishi is also offering up to a $500 instant rebate, through December 25th.   

If you are interested in getting a ductless system, there will never be a better time than right now to get one! Don't lose out on $900 in savings. Give us a call today at 206-763-1744 to schedule a quote.

Don’t Let The Name Fool You. Ductless Heat Pumps Work With Ducted/Central Systems Too!

When ductless heat pumps first entered the market, “ductless” was a great description of the product. They were designed to bring high efficiency heat pump technology into places that were not built with central ductwork. However, the technology has significantly evolved since then. There are many types of indoor units available for a ductless system. Many of them are still designed to be installed without ductwork.

Recently however, Mitsubishi and Daikin have released new indoor air handlers that are designed to be installed in central ductwork. These air handlers bring the extreme efficiency, small footprint, and quiet operation of ductless systems into homes with central ductwork, opening up a world of possible configurations for homes!

If you would like to find out if ductless heating and cooling would be a good option for your home, give us a call at 206-763-1744. We offer free, no obligation estimates.

Want a heat pump or AC but concerned about outdoor noise and space issues? This solution might work.

City codes and regulations were put in place for a reason. They help make our homes and neighborhoods safer, more comfortable places to live. However, as Seattle’s residential codes and restrictions have grown more stringent, there can also be a cost. Not only can tougher codes and regulations make it harder for businesses to keep costs and prices down, sometimes it keeps homeowners from making desperately needed improvements to the efficiency and comfort of their homes.

One example of this is Seattle’s residential noise codes. There are certainly excellent reasons these codes are in place. They help keep our neighborhoods quiet at night, and give residents a means of recourse when neighbors are making too much noise at night. However, there is an unfortunate casualty of Seattle’s strict noise codes. Seattle’s small lot sizes, combined with stringent noise codes, make it extremely tough to install a high efficiency central heat pump or air conditioner in the city limits. Many times, there simply is no place to put a large compressor-bearing piece of equipment far enough from a property line that wouldn’t violate Seattle’s decibel limits. Many of these heat pumps can run in multiple speeds, limiting the noise they put out most of the time. The codes, however, only take their highest speed/sound output into consideration. This leaves many customers out in the cold (or in the heat in the summer time) when it comes to high efficiency heating and cooling.

Air Scrubber Plus®: Does it Really Work?

As heating and air conditioning professionals, we run into a lot of products that make some pretty incredible claims. It’s our job to sift through all of them and find the ones that we believe in and that we can recommend to our customers without reservation. After all, the reputation of our company is at stake!

We have tested a lot of products, and most of them haven’t made the grade for a variety of reasons. Maybe they don’t work as well as they claim, or maybe they do work, but the cost is higher than the value we believe them to have for our customers. With that in mind, I wanted to write about an indoor air quality product we recently came into contact with, the Air Scrubber Plus® by Enviro Professionals.

Should you repair or replace your broken heating system?

There are certain modern conveniences that we all just assume are going to work. Many of us wake up in the morning, put on clean clothes in our warm homes, put our keys in our car's ignition, turn them and the car starts. We move on through our day without thinking about all of the technology that goes into making our lives so comfortable and convenient. Until one of them stops working!

When a furnace, heat pump, or other home heating equipment quits working, it's usually an unexpected hit to the bank account. Should you repair or replace it? The answer to this question depends on a variety of factors that you'll need to weigh for yourself.

How Often Does A Gas Furnace Need Maintenance?

There are several reasons why it is important to have a professional technician perform maintenance on your gas furnace periodically.