Thermostat Installation in Chelsea, Michigan

Houses in Chelsea have thermostat wiring from every era of the 1890s–1920s village homes and 1990s–2010s subdivisions on the edges that fill Washtenaw County. Two-conductor cable to a round mercury dial in the older blocks around the Chelsea Clock Tower, four conductors in the colonials that got central air in the 1980s, and five or more in the subdivisions near Chelsea Fairways where the builder ran enough wire but the installer never used it. What your Chelsea house needs for a modern thermostat depends on which of those you have, and that is what we check before recommending anything. Temprasure installs Ecobee, Nest, Honeywell Home and Sensi units, plus plain digital thermostats for people who want nothing connected, and we quote the whole job flat-rate.

Chelsea houses and what that means for thermostats

The in-town housing is dominated by 1890s–1940s two-stories, foursquares and bungalows on fieldstone or early block basements with plaster walls and ductwork retrofitted into a house that was designed for a coal furnace or stoves. Flues in these homes are often unlined brick, and we see a lot of 80 percent furnaces that have been venting into a chimney that should have been relined years ago. The post-war ring along McKinley Street and Freer Road is 1950s–70s ranches and capes, some on slabs, with electric baseboard still present in a few. Chelsea Fairways, Heritage Pointe and the other 1990s–2010s subdivisions are colonials and ranches on full basements with builder-grade 80 percent furnaces and single-stage air conditioners that are now hitting replacement age. Outside the city on Werkner, Waterloo and Cavanaugh Lake Roads, we see lakefront cottages that were winterized, farmhouses with multiple additions, and newer acreage homes on propane and well water.

The common wire problem is the one we solve most in Chelsea. The 1890s–1920s village homes and 1990s–2010s subdivisions on the edges homes around Chelsea Fairways were wired with four-conductor thermostat cable when central air was added, and a smart thermostat needs a fifth conductor for continuous power. Without it, the thermostat steals power through the furnace circuit, the screen goes blank during a heating call, the Wi-Fi drops, and the furnace board sees pulses it interprets as calls and starts short-cycling. On a Chelsea install we open the furnace, find an unused conductor if one exists, land it on the C terminal at the board, and if there is nothing spare we fit a power extender kit at the furnace or fish a new cable where the wall allows. The thermostat then has real power and the furnace sees a clean call.

Our trucks are in Chelsea most weeks, because Washtenaw County is where a large share of our work is and 48118 is a short run from Ypsilanti. The 1890s–1920s village homes and 1990s–2010s subdivisions on the edges that line the streets near Heritage Pointe and the Jiffy Mix plant 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 Chelsea house they fail as one system.

Local details we plan around in Chelsea

• Chelsea is in Consumers Energy gas territory rather than DTE, which matters for rebate programs and for who we call about a meter or service line issue.
• The city runs its own water system from wells, and the water is hard enough that we recommend annual flushing on tank water heaters here.
• Unlined brick chimneys in the historic neighborhoods are the single most common venting problem we find during furnace replacements in town.
• Chelsea is high and open compared with the river towns to the east, and it gets more wind and a bit more snow than Ypsilanti, with polar vortex nights that run a few degrees colder. The lakes in the Waterloo Recreation Area and around Cavanaugh Lake add summer humidity for the homes closest to them. Heavy tree cover downtown and on the older residential streets shades roofs in July, while the newer subdivisions on the east side have little mature canopy yet.