Heat pumps and mini splits in Fairhaven

The houses in Fairhaven

Fairhaven is the boom-town district that never got torn down: tall Victorian and Craftsman houses from the 1890s and 1900s on the hill above the old brick commercial core, plus newer condominium buildings closer to the water. The houses are typically two full storeys over a basement, with balloon framing, plaster on lath, and rooms that were designed around a stove rather than a duct system. Lots are narrow and deep with the houses set close to the property line on at least one side.

What is probably heating yours right now

A lot of Fairhaven houses were heated by a coal or oil furnace, converted to gas in the 1960s or 70s, and are still using a duct system that grew out of that gravity trunk. Upstairs bedrooms and third-floor spaces are commonly on baseboard or a wall heater because the ducts never reached them, and the condominium units are usually all-electric. Attic and floor insulation is often thin, so weatherization rebates are frequently worth more per dollar here than a larger piece of equipment.

What makes a Fairhaven install different

The narrow side yards are the real constraint: on many lots the only place a condenser fits is a four-foot strip between the house and the neighbour, which puts sound and service clearance ahead of everything else in the equipment choice. Fairhaven also has genuine historic-district sensibilities, and a heat pump bolted to a street-facing façade is the wrong answer even where nothing prohibits it — we plan for the alley side, a screened pad, or a low-profile mount that reads as mechanical rather than decorative. Being this close to the water means salt air, so corrosion-protected coils are worth the upcharge, and any wall-mounted head in a plaster-and-lath room needs its penetration planned before we cut.

Sizing for 19°F

Every Bellingham address shares the same code design temperature — 19°F at station Bellingham 2 N, colder than Sea-Tac's 24°F. What differs street to street is the envelope. A 1910s one-and-a-half storey with knee walls and original single glazing carries a very different load from a mid-2000s two-storey built to a modern code, even at identical square footage. That is why we run the load rather than multiplying square feet by a constant.

We know the streets

If you are near Fairhaven Village Green, the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, Marine Park, Padden Creek, we have worked nearby. Ask and we will tell you honestly what we have run into on that side of town.