Mild winters
A heat pump's efficiency falls as it gets colder outside. Here it rarely gets cold enough for that to matter, which removes the single strongest objection people bring to the conversation.
Redwood City · Mid-Peninsula
Electrify the house. Check the panel first.
Heat pumps suit this climate better than almost anywhere in the country. The part nobody mentions until the quote arrives is whether your electrical service can take one.
- Panel capacity assessed before quoting
- Ducts tested, not assumed
The honest version Sometimes the answer is that a panel upgrade costs more than the heat pump. You should hear that on day one.
Why here, why now
The Peninsula is close to the ideal climate for a heat pump
Most of the scepticism about heat pumps comes from cold-climate arguments that simply do not apply between the bay and the coast range.
Modest summers
Cooling loads here are real but not extreme. That means one machine can genuinely cover both seasons instead of being a compromise in one of them.
One appliance, not two
A heat pump replaces the furnace and the air conditioner with a single machine, and removes a gas appliance and its flue from the building. Fewer things to service, fewer things to fail.
And the part that is not simple
Electrification is an electrical project as much as a mechanical one. A heat pump wants a circuit, and it is joining a panel that may already be serving an EV charger, an induction range and a heat-pump water heater. That is the conversation this site is built around, and it is on the heat pump page.
The panel question
Four appliances, one service
An older Peninsula house often has a 100-amp service that was perfectly adequate when everything except the lights ran on gas. Electrification puts several large loads onto it in quick succession, frequently over a few years and by different contractors who never speak to each other.
The bars below are illustrative rather than a calculation for your house — a real assessment uses measured load rather than nameplate arithmetic — but the shape of the problem is exactly this.
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Existing house — lights, outlets, laundryBaseline
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+ EV chargerOften already fitted
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+ Induction range & heat-pump water heaterFrequently next
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+ Heat pumpWhere the problem surfaces
This is the point at which a project either proceeds, or discovers it needs a service upgrade.
What we do
Six services
Heat pumps are the speciality. Everything else is the ordinary work of keeping Peninsula houses comfortable.
Heat pumps & conversions
Ducted and ductless, with the panel assessed and the duct system tested before any equipment is specified.
AC repair
Not cooling, short cycling, icing, tripping a breaker. Diagnosed on readings before a part is quoted.
Installation & replacement
Load calculated from the building, ducting assessed first, permit and Title 24 documentation handled.
Heating
Furnace service, heat-exchanger and combustion safety checks, and replacement where a gas appliance is staying.
Ductwork
Static pressure, leakage, return sizing and balancing. The step most often skipped, and the one that decides whether a heat pump performs.
Maintenance
An annual visit with the readings written down, so year two's numbers mean something beside year one's.
The assessment
What happens before we quote anything
On an electrification project the assessment is the product. Everything after it is execution.
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The building
Room-by-room load from orientation, glazing, insulation and use. Not floor area, and not the old equipment's data plate.
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The ducts
Static pressure measured, return sizing checked, leakage assessed. A heat pump on a starved duct system will disappoint you.
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The panel
Existing service size, what is already connected, and the measured load. If a service upgrade is needed you hear it here.
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The numbers
Options in writing, with running-cost arithmetic against your actual rate plan rather than a national average.
Where we differ
We will talk you out of it if the numbers say so
Electrification is a genuinely good idea in most Peninsula houses. It is not a good idea in all of them, and there are honest reasons to wait: a panel upgrade that costs more than the equipment, a duct system that needs replacing first, a furnace with eight good years left in it.
Nobody here earns commission on equipment, which is the only arrangement under which "not yet, and here is what to do first" can be a real recommendation.
- Running costs calculated against your rate plan, not a brochure
- Panel and duct costs quoted up front, not discovered mid-project
- Rebate paperwork prepared — and no quote built around one that has closed
Where we work
The mid-Peninsula, bay side and hills
We are on Marshall Street in downtown Redwood City, which puts San Carlos, Belmont, San Mateo, Menlo Park and Atherton inside fifteen minutes and the rest of the list inside thirty.
- Redwood City
- San Carlos
- Belmont
- San Mateo
- Foster City
- Menlo Park
- Atherton
- Woodside
- Portola Valley
- Emerald Hills
- Palo Alto
- East Palo Alto
- Burlingame
- Hillsborough
- Millbrae
Questions
The ones we get asked most
Will a heat pump actually keep my house warm here?
Comfortably. The mid-Peninsula almost never gets cold enough to trouble a modern heat pump, and the design condition here is nothing like the one those machines are criticised for in cold climates. The more common problem is the opposite: heat pumps sized for heating end up slightly oversized for our cooling season, which is one reason the load calculation matters.
Do I need to upgrade my electrical panel?
Sometimes, and it is the single biggest hidden cost in an electrification project. A heat pump adds a circuit to a panel that may already be carrying an EV charger, an induction range or a heat-pump water heater. We assess the existing panel and the actual measured load before quoting, so if a service upgrade is needed you hear it at the beginning rather than halfway through.
Is a heat pump cheaper to run than gas?
It depends on your electricity rate plan and your gas rate, and anyone who gives you a confident yes without asking about either is guessing. A heat pump moves heat rather than making it, so it delivers several units of heat per unit of electricity — but electricity costs more per unit than gas in California. The arithmetic is worth doing properly, with your rate plan, before you decide.
Can I keep my existing ductwork?
Often, but it has to be tested rather than assumed. Heat pumps typically move more air at a lower temperature than the furnace they replace, so a duct system that was marginal before can become genuinely inadequate. We measure static pressure and check the return sizing before specifying equipment, because putting a good heat pump on a poor duct system produces a disappointed customer.
What about rebates and incentives?
State, utility and regional programmes for heat pumps exist and they change frequently — amounts, eligibility and whether funds are still available all move. We prepare the documentation for whatever is live when your job runs, and we tell you plainly when nothing applicable is open rather than building a quote around a rebate that has closed.
Start with the assessment
Building, ducts, panel and numbers — before anybody talks about equipment.