- Home
- Winter
Winter
October to March in the Inland Northwest. Everything that fails in January was findable in October — which is the whole argument for the heating check.
In houses
What winter looks like in a Spokane house
- No heat on the first cold nightFilter, flame sensor, pressure switch or ignition, in roughly that order. Cheap parts, and precisely what nobody checked in October.
- The heat pump runs on backup heat all winterA balance-point or staging setting far more often than a fault. It shows up on the bill before anybody notices the equipment.
- One room never warms upDuct length, a crushed run, or a return path the closed door cuts off. Measurable, and usually cheaper than anything else proposed.
- Ice at the eavesWarm air leaving the house into a cold attic. Some of that is our work and some is not — the roof section is honest about which.
- Dry air and staticGenuinely dry here in winter. Humidification helps and has a sensible ceiling; past it you put water on your windows and inside your walls.
- A new noiseBearings, a loaded blower wheel or a loose panel. New noises do not settle down.
In buildings
What winter looks like on a site
- Unit heaters that have not run since MarchStarted and checked in October, because a warehouse heater is not a January job.
- Freeze protectionFreeze stats tested, trace heating proven, drain-down points walked, and the setback floor set high enough that nothing reaches freezing.
- Make-up air in cold weatherExtract without a heated supply pulls sub-freezing air through the building. It is the commonest cause of a workshop nobody can heat.
- Low-temperature alarmsThe cheapest item on any winter list, and the difference between a nuisance and a flood.
- Rooftop units in snowEconomiser dampers, condensate routes and the access that becomes impossible once there is a foot of snow on the deck.
