Builder-grade heat pumps from the 2005 boom are coming due across St. Johns County

A generation of houses, a generation of heat pumps

Between about 2004 and 2008, St. Johns County built faster than almost anywhere in the country. World Golf Village and Murabella filled in around International Golf Parkway; Palencia grew up US 1 toward Nocatee; the south end of St. Augustine Shores and the inland side of Anastasia Island got their last big waves of block-and-stucco homes. ZIPs 32080, 32084 and 32086 are each more than half built since 2000.

Every one of those houses got a heat pump, and nearly every one got the same kind: the lowest-efficiency unit that met code that year, sized by a rule of thumb, with builder-grade flex duct and a basic thermostat. Those systems are now sixteen to twenty-one years old. They have lived through two decades of mid-70s dew points, summer lightning and, for the ones east of the river, salt air. They’re failing on schedule, which is to say all at once.

That is who calls us for heat pump installation: the owner of a 2005 house whose original system just lost its compressor, or whose second coil leak in three years has made the repair-versus-replace math obvious.

Who else is calling

The boom-era owner is the biggest group, not the only one.

• Block-ranch owners in St. Augustine Shores and St. Augustine South on their second or third system, often with the original 1980s duct still in the attic.
• Davis Shores and bayfront owners replacing a unit that drowned in a king tide or a surge, and wanting the new one set higher.
• Historic-district owners in Lincolnville, Nelmar Terrace and the Model Land Company District whose retrofit ducted system never worked well, choosing between a better ducted unit and ductless heat pumps.
• Beach and island owners from Vilano to Crescent Beach whose condenser corroded through in ten years and who want a coated coil and a taller stand this time.
• New owners of any of the above, who inherited a system of unknown history and want to start fresh before the first summer.

Three installs, three different houses

A 2006 two-story in World Golf Village. Original 3.5-ton single-stage heat pump, compressor seized in June. Load calculation came back at 3 tons; the builder had oversized it. Installed a 3-ton variable-speed Lennox heat pump with a matched air handler in the garage, sealed the attic duct joints, added a media filter cabinet. One day, finished before dinner. FPL instant rebate shown on the quote, as the program allows through an enrolled installer. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]

A 1979 block ranch in St. Augustine South. Third system for the house, second for this owner. The attic flex duct was original, crushed in two places and disconnected at one boot. The new heat pump would have been starved for air, so the duct repair went into the quote as its own line. Owner chose a two-stage unit and the duct work; the whole job took two days and the back bedroom finally cools, which it hadn’t done in years.

A 1950s cottage in Davis Shores. Picture an air handler and condenser that both sat in brackish water during Irma, limped for a few years, and failed together. New heat pump installed with the condenser on a stand above the base flood elevation and the air handler on a raised platform in the garage, with the drain and electrical rerouted to match. When the owner’s insurance adjuster asks for elevation photos, they are in the job file.

Get a free installation estimate

From load calculation to startup

1. Estimate visit. We measure the house, work the cooling load room by room, inspect the duct and electrical, and talk about how you live in the house. You get two or three equipment options in writing, with the FPL rebate noted. The estimate is free.
2. Scheduling. Any day of the week, including weekends, with no after-hours charge. Most jobs are one day.
3. Removal. Refrigerant recovered, old equipment out, disposal handled.
4. Set and connect. New condenser on its pad or stand; new air handler or coil; line set flushed or replaced; drain and float switch; electrical and disconnect; thermostat.
5. Evacuate and charge. The system is pulled into a deep vacuum and charged by weight and by measurement, not by feel.
6. Startup. Full cooling and heating cycles run and measured: temperature split, static pressure, amp draws, defrost cycle, strip staging. Thermostat set up as a heat pump with auxiliary lockout.
7. Walkthrough and paperwork. Operation explained, filter schedule set, warranty registered, permit inspection scheduled.

The crew rolls from Palm Coast, about 24 miles off, with the equipment already loaded.

The paperwork you keep

Cook’s installs Lennox and stands behind the installation with a satisfaction guarantee. The written paperwork you keep includes the equipment model numbers, the manufacturer’s parts and compressor warranty terms with the maintenance requirement that keeps them valid, our workmanship commitment, the permit record, and the rebate and credit documentation. Monthly installment terms exist for efficient new equipment; we go over the application before anything is scheduled and never quote a lender or a rate on a web page.

What we don’t put in writing: a price by phone, or a tonnage guessed from square footage. Both have cost too many St. Augustine homeowners a system that was wrong for the house.