Outside, first
In this city that is not a joke. A buried vent terminal will stop a modern appliance, and it looks exactly like a failure from indoors. It is the first thing we ask about on a winter call.
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Houses that heat for seven months
Syracuse, Camillus, Liverpool, DeWitt and the hills south of the city. A long season, older stock, and equipment that works harder here than the same equipment does anywhere warmer.
No heat
What it usually is, in the order we check.
01
02
The filter
A restricted filter makes a furnace overheat and stop on its limit. Seven months of running makes that far more likely here than in a two-month heating climate. Write the size on the cabinet.
03
Ignition and flame sensing
An appliance that tries three times and gives up is usually telling you about its ignition sequence, not about itself. That is a repair.
04
Condensate, on modern appliances
High-efficiency furnaces and boilers produce water and it has to drain. A frozen or blocked condensate line stops the appliance, and a line run through an unheated space is the usual reason.
05
The heat exchanger
Where it is compromised the appliance is shut off rather than repaired. That is not a negotiation and it never will be, whatever the forecast says.
06
Boiler side
Circulators, zone valves and the expansion vessel are where most boiler faults live. A radiator cold at the top is usually air; cold throughout is usually a valve.
Heat pumps in a cold city
They work here. What changes is how they are mounted and how they are set up.
Height off the ground is the first thing. A unit on a ground-level pad in Onondaga County spends part of the winter partly buried, and defrost water has to be able to leave the base rather than freeze under it. Raised brackets or a tall stand are not an upgrade here, they are the correct installation.
Back-up heat is the second. Every heat pump has electric resistance heat for the coldest conditions and for defrost. It runs silently and it is expensive, and a system leaning on it far more than it should shows up as a bill rather than as a noise. Thermostat configuration and refrigerant charge are the usual causes.
Defrost is the third. In cold damp weather the outdoor coil frosts and the system periodically reverses to clear it. Steam, a change of note and a few minutes of cooler air indoors is normal. Defrosting constantly, or never, is not.
None of that makes a heat pump the wrong choice here. It makes a badly mounted, badly configured heat pump the wrong choice here, which is a different sentence.
Mounted high, with clear space beneath for defrost water. The usual fault here is the opposite.
Before we quote a replacement
- 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.
- Venting planned for this climateTerminal height and location decided with four feet of snow in mind rather than with the installation-day ground level.
- Condensate routed through heated spaceOn any high-efficiency appliance. A line through a cold crawlspace is a January call-out waiting to happen.
- 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.