Heat pumps and mini splits in Happy Valley

The houses in Happy Valley

Happy Valley sits on the slope below Western, and the housing is a mix of pre-war bungalows, small 1940s and 50s houses, and a lot of properties that have been divided into two or three units to serve the university. Basements have been finished into apartments on a very large number of these lots, which is why so many houses have two entrances and a stairway that was never in the original plan. Grades are steep enough that a house can be one storey at the street and three at the back.

What is probably heating yours right now

The typical Happy Valley property is a partly ducted main floor with a gas or electric furnace, and a basement unit heated entirely by baseboard because that was the cheapest way to make a rentable space legal. Detached back cottages and garage conversions are all-electric almost without exception. That baseboard-heated lower unit is a textbook PSE electric-resistance conversion candidate, and a single ductless head usually serves it better than trying to extend the upstairs duct system.

What makes a Happy Valley install different

Access is the recurring cost driver. Steep driveways and lots that fall away at the back make it hard to get a condenser to the mechanical side of the house, and on some properties the only sane outdoor location is at street level with a long lineset down or up to the unit. Where the house is split into rentals, we want to know which meter serves which unit before we quote, because the rebate and the electrical work follow the meter, not the address. Any panel upgrade goes to a licensed electrical contractor, and older Happy Valley panels are frequently at capacity once a second unit was added.

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 Happy Valley Park, Joe’s Garden, the Interurban Trail trailhead, Padden Creek Trail, we have worked nearby. Ask and we will tell you honestly what we have run into on that side of town.