Heat pumps and mini splits in Roosevelt

The houses in Roosevelt

Roosevelt is compact mid-century housing on a regular grid east of the freeway — modest ramblers and small two-bedroom houses, a scattering of 1920s cottages where it meets Sunnyland, and duplexes on the corner lots. Footprints are small, ceilings are eight feet, and most houses sit over a crawlspace with a detached or tucked-under single garage. Lots are rectangular and level, which makes this one of the easier neighborhoods to work in.

What is probably heating yours right now

Roosevelt is mostly a gas-furnace neighborhood, and because the houses are small the equipment is small — a closet-sized furnace, sometimes still vented through the original chimney. On the 1920s blocks toward Sunnyland you still run into an in-wall gravity heater as the only heat in the front of the house. The duplexes and corner rentals are the electric-resistance side of Roosevelt, usually one baseboard circuit per room on a separate meter, and those are the units where the PSE conversion rebate and Efficiency Boost are worth checking before anything is ordered.

What makes a Roosevelt install different

Small houses on level lots with real side yards mean placement is rarely the problem in Roosevelt; sizing is. These envelopes are closer to 1,000 square feet than 2,000, and the smallest ducted heat pump on a distributor’s shelf is often larger than the house needs at 19°F, which is how you end up with short cycling and poor dehumidification. We would rather put in a properly sized ductless system, or a variable-capacity ducted unit that can actually turn down, than sell you tonnage you cannot use. On the duplexes, confirm which panel and meter serve the half you are heating before any electrical work is scoped.

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 Civic Field, Roosevelt Park, the Alabama Street corridor, we have worked nearby. Ask and we will tell you honestly what we have run into on that side of town.