HVAC Installation & Replacement in Ann Arbor, Michigan

A lot of our installation work in Ann Arbor starts as something else. A no-heat call in Water Hill turns out to be a cracked heat exchanger on a 24-year-old furnace. An AC repair near Michigan Stadium finds a leaking R-22 coil on a system that predates 2010. A pre-purchase inspection on a pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side house in 48103 shows equipment the seller deferred for a decade. In each case we explain what we found, tell you whether a repair would buy real time, and quote the replacement only if it makes sense. Ann Arbor homeowners who choose Temprasure for the install get the owner on the job, DTE Energy rebate paperwork handled, and a system that is commissioned instead of just switched on.

Ann Arbor houses and what that means for hvac installation

Ann Arbor gives us almost every housing type in one zip code. The Old West Side and Old Fourth Ward are full of 1880s–1920s frame houses with stone or rubble foundations, fieldstone basements that stay damp, and furnaces that replaced boilers or gravity units sometime in the 1960s or 70s. Many of those homes still have cast-iron radiators fed by a boiler, and a surprising number have both a boiler and a separate forced-air system added for cooling. Burns Park and Ann Arbor Hills houses are larger 1920s–50s builds with plaster walls, so getting a second return or a bigger supply trunk in is slow work. The ranches and split-levels of the west side were built with 80,000 to 100,000 BTU furnaces that are now oversized for insulated versions of the same house. Condos near Briarwood and Pittsfield Village often have furnaces in closets or attics with tight clearances. Student rentals near campus run the oldest equipment in the city, and landlords routinely call us for emergency service and new-purchase inspections.

Sizing a new system in Ann Arbor is where the housing age matters most. The pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side that fill Water Hill were built with single-pane windows and little insulation, and the original furnace was sized for that. Most of those houses have since had windows, attic insulation and air sealing done, so the heating load is a fraction of what it was, and matching the old furnace's capacity puts an oversized unit in the basement that short-cycles and never runs long enough to move air evenly. On every Ann Arbor install we run a Manual J calculation against the house as it is today, with the Washtenaw County design temperatures, and we show you the result. The furnace we recommend is often smaller than the one coming out, and it heats the house better.

Our trucks are in Ann Arbor most weeks, because Washtenaw County is where a large share of our work is and 48103 is a short run from Ypsilanti. The pre-war two-stories and 1950s–60s ranches, with university-era infill on every side that line the streets near Burns Park and Argo Cascades have usually been through two or three furnaces and at least one air conditioner, often installed by different companies with different ideas about ductwork, and sorting that out is what a whole-system visit is for. We check the furnace, the coil, the condenser, the thermostat and the ducts as one system, because in a Ann Arbor house they fail as one system.

Local details we plan around in Ann Arbor

• The city's water is treated at its own plant and softened, so water heater sediment is lighter here than in surrounding townships on well water.
• Fieldstone foundations in the oldest neighborhoods sweat enough that furnace cabinets and water heater bases corrode early unless they sit on blocks or a pad.
• A lot of pre-1950 houses have been converted to duplexes or student rentals, which means two systems crammed into one basement and undersized gas lines serving both.
• The Huron River cuts a deep valley through the north side of Ann Arbor, and the Northside, Lower Town and Gallup Park neighborhoods feel it as morning fog, heavier dew and basements that sweat in July. The downtown core holds heat with all its brick and pavement, so attics and upper floors there run several degrees hotter than the leafy blocks of Burns Park and the Old West Side, where mature oaks and maples shade roofs and cut peak cooling loads noticeably.