Heat pumps and mini splits in Sunnyland

The houses in Sunnyland

Sunnyland is small-lot, small-house Bellingham: 1920s and 30s cottages and bungalows on a tight grid, most of them compact by modern standards, with detached garages on the alley and gardens that fill what yard remains. A postwar layer added modest ramblers, and in the last several years the neighborhood has picked up a noticeable number of accessory dwelling units in back yards and above garages. Basements are shallow, crawlspaces are common, and the upstairs half-storey shows up again and again.

What is probably heating yours right now

Gas furnaces are typical in the cottages that got a duct system, usually in a basement or a hall closet, with the upstairs room on baseboard or nothing at all. Houses that were never ducted run baseboard and a wall heater, and every new ADU in the neighborhood was built all-electric. Both the older all-electric cottages and the resistance-heated ADUs meet the existing-system requirement for PSE’s conversion rebate.

What makes a Sunnyland install different

Sunnyland’s ADUs are the most interesting work here — a one-room unit over a garage with baseboard heat is an ideal single-zone ductless job, and because the structure is new the wall detail and the electrical are straightforward. In the main houses, the constraint is space: small lots, gardens people care about, and side yards narrow enough that the condenser pad has to be surveyed rather than assumed, often against the alley-side garage. Where a property has both a house and an ADU, sort out which meter serves which building early, since it determines both the electrical scope and who can claim the rebate.

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 Sunnyland Memorial Park, the Roeder Home on Sunset Drive, the Sunnyland alley gardens, we have worked nearby. Ask and we will tell you honestly what we have run into on that side of town.