Getting heating and cooling right in a house you are building

Why this conversation belongs at framing, not at drywall

Most homeowners building a new house think about heating and cooling somewhere around the time the drywall goes up, when the question becomes which thermostat to pick rather than where the ductwork runs or how big the system actually needs to be. By then, the decisions that matter most have already been made by whoever framed the house, whether or not heating and cooling was part of that conversation.

Framing is the point where a duct run can still go somewhere different, where a return air path can still be planned instead of squeezed in, and where the size and placement of the equipment itself can be decided based on how the house is actually built rather than guessed at afterward. Once the walls close up, all of that gets a lot more expensive to change and a lot more likely to just get lived with.

What actually gets evaluated

For a new build, our team looks at the house itself, not a generic size chart, to determine where the equipment should go and how it should be sized for that specific home. New construction is also the point where automatic temperature monitoring and ENERGY STAR rated equipment are easiest to build in, because they are being installed once rather than retrofitted into a house that is already finished and lived in.

A house that is oversized on its equipment does not heat or cool any better. It cycles on and off more often, which is harder on the equipment over time and does not actually make the house more comfortable. A house that is undersized runs constantly and still struggles on the coldest or hottest days. Getting the size right at the start, based on the actual house rather than a rule of thumb, avoids both problems for as long as that equipment is in service.

What you get for planning ahead

• Equipment sized and placed for the house as it is actually built, not fitted into whatever space is left over.
• Access to ENERGY STAR rated equipment options from the start, rather than as a later upgrade.
• Automatic temperature monitoring built in rather than added on.
• The possibility of tax savings tied to more efficient equipment, worth asking about while you are choosing equipment, not after.
• No retrofit later. Whatever gets decided at framing is what the house lives with, and getting it right the first time is the whole point of having this conversation early.

If you are working with a builder in Kimberly, Appleton, Neenah, Kaukauna, Menasha or De Pere, the best time to loop us in is before the walls close, not after the house is finished and someone notices one room never gets warm. It costs nothing to have that conversation early, and it is a lot cheaper than fixing it later.

Financing a new system as part of the build

Heating and cooling is one of the larger line items in a new build, and it does not have to be paid for in a single lump sum. We work with Synchrony Financial and offer an 18 month interest free option along with terms running up to 48 months, on top of accepting cash, checks and the major credit cards. Worth asking about while the rest of the build budget is still being worked out, rather than after the equipment is already ordered.

A business that has done this before

We have been doing heating and cooling work out of the same building in Kimberly since 1978, and new construction has been part of that the whole time. If your builder has not already brought in an HVAC contractor, ask them to call us before the framing is finished.

A house you build yourself is also a house you will likely live in longer than most, which makes the case for getting this right even stronger. The furnace and air conditioner installed during the build are the ones that will carry the house through its first decade or more, and a system that was sized and placed correctly from day one tends to need less attention over that stretch than one that was fitted in as an afterthought.