Thermostat Installation in Whittaker, Michigan

Temprasure has installed and repaired thermostats across Washtenaw County for years, and Whittaker is a regular stop. The job takes under an hour when the wiring is sound and a little longer when a common wire has to be added or a new cable fished through a 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads wall near Whittaker Road north toward Bemis. Either way the price is quoted before we start and does not change. We carry the common smart thermostat models on the truck, install anything you have already bought if it fits your system, and configure every unit for the equipment in your Whittaker house rather than leaving it on factory defaults that treat a gas furnace like a heat pump.

Whittaker houses and what that means for thermostats

Around the crossroads itself the houses are 1880s–1930s farm-village homes with Michigan basements, balloon framing and a forced-air system that was retrofitted into a house built for a wood or coal stove. Those homes tend to have a single undersized return and a furnace that has been replaced two or three times without the ductwork ever being touched. Along Whittaker, Willis and Talladay Roads the common house is a 1970s–90s ranch or raised ranch on a crawlspace or block basement, with the original furnace in a utility room and a condenser that was added in the 1990s on whatever circuit was available. The 2000s subdivisions between Bemis and Willis Roads are colonials and ranches on poured basements with builder-grade equipment that is reaching replacement age, and a lot of them run propane rather than gas. Manufactured homes and modulars on the side roads often have small downflow furnaces and package units that need parts most shops do not stock.

The common wire problem is the one we solve most in Whittaker. The 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads homes around Whittaker Road north toward Bemis 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 Whittaker 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 Whittaker most weeks, because Washtenaw County is where a large share of our work is and 48190 is a short run from Ypsilanti. The 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads that line the streets near Willis Road west toward Mooreville and Lincoln High School 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 Whittaker house they fail as one system.

Local details we plan around in Whittaker

• Every home in Whittaker is on a private well, and the water is hard with enough iron to shorten water heater life and clog humidifier pads within a season.
• DTE gas is available right along Whittaker Road and Willis Road near the crossroads, but a few hundred yards down a side road the gas main ends and propane takes over.
• Crawlspace ductwork on the 1970s ranches here is frequently rusted, disconnected or chewed, and we check it on every furnace call before we blame the equipment.
• Whittaker is on flat, open ground with Stony Creek running through the low land to the north and east, and the creek bottom holds moisture that keeps nearby crawlspaces damp through late spring. There is almost no windbreak between the crossroads and the fields to the west, so winter wind hits the exposed side of every house. Summer is humid and still, and homes without mature shade trees run their air conditioning longer than their size would suggest.