- Home
- Homes
Houses on the high plains
Greeley, Evans, Windsor and Eaton. Long cold winters, dry hot summers, a fortnight of moisture at the end of August, and cottonwood seed in everything.
No heat, and what it usually is
A filter nobody has changed
A restricted filter makes a furnace overheat and shut down on its limit switch. It looks exactly like a failure and it is the single most common January call-out we take. Write the size on the cabinet and it becomes a two-minute job.
Flame sensor or ignition
A furnace that tries three times and gives up is usually telling you about its ignition sequence rather than about the whole appliance. It is a repair, not a replacement, and we will say so.
Blocked, corroded or disconnected flues are a genuine hazard and are not always obvious from the room.
The heat exchanger
The steel wall between the flue gases and the air you breathe. If that is compromised the appliance is shut off rather than repaired. That is not a negotiation and it never will be.
Frequently replaced by somebody who did not check what the equipment expects, particularly on a heat pump.
Whichever machine you have
Seasonal work that actually matters
- Spring start-up — pads changed, pump and float checked, water line opened, bleed set
- Mid-season — pads scale up in hard water and stop absorbing. They are consumable, not permanent
- Autumn winterisation — water line drained and the cooler covered. Skipping this is how they are destroyed
- The relief path — a window or vent has to be open. If yours cools badly, this is the first thing to check and it is free
What a service should include
- Outdoor coil cleaned — cottonwood seed in June is the local problem and a packed coil cannot reject heat
- Temperature split measured against the data plate, not guessed
- Static pressure measured against the blower’s own rating
- Charge checked properly rather than topped up. A system losing refrigerant has a leak, and topping it up is not a repair
- Condensate drain, trap and float switch cleared and tested
Before we quote one
- A load calculation for your houseRoom by room, from orientation, glazing, shading, insulation and how the house is used. Not from the badge on the old unit, which may have been wrong when it was fitted.
- Static pressure and airflow measuredAgainst the blower’s own rating. If the ducts cannot carry what a new system produces, that belongs in the quotation rather than in a conversation afterwards.
- The ductwork looked atCrawlspace and attic runs, joints, returns and the plenum. Sealing gets priced or explicitly excluded, never left silent.
- Permit filedWith the Greeley or Weld County office covering your address, and named in the quotation.
- Commissioned with numbersAirflow, temperature rise or split, static pressure and charge, written down and left with you.
Dry winter air
Winter at this elevation is genuinely dry and people notice it. A whole-house humidifier does raise indoor humidity and it will not fix a draughty house. Pushed too far it puts condensation on your windows and eventually inside your walls, so there is a sensible ceiling for every house and we will tell you where yours is.
What that dryness does to anybody’s health is a question for a doctor, not for a heating contractor, and we are not going to answer it on a website in order to sell a humidifier.