Spokane WA Heat Pump Installation is a heat pump contractor providing heat pump sizing and load calculation for homeowners and property owners across Spokane County, WA and out to the Idaho state line. Every job starts from a load calculation rather than the size of whatever came out.
A load calculation is the measurement of how much heat your specific house loses in winter and gains in summer, worked out room by room from its actual construction. It replaces the rule of thumb approach where a contractor estimates tonnage from square footage, an approach that Washington's current energy code has effectively made obsolete for new work. The output is a number in BTU per hour for each room and for the house overall, and it is the foundation every other decision rests on. We provide it as a document you keep, whoever ends up doing the installation.
The heating load is calculated as the heat loss from a 70°F interior to Spokane's winter design temperature. That single input drives the entire result, which is why using a generic national figure instead of the local one produces the wrong answer.
A calculation is only as good as its inputs, and the inputs come from actually looking at the house rather than assuming.
Window orientation changes the answer more than most people expect. A west-facing window in Spokane picks up a substantial afternoon cooling load in July that an identical north-facing window never sees, and in winter a south-facing window contributes useful solar gain. A square footage rule of thumb cannot distinguish between two rooms of identical size with completely different glazing, which is precisely why it produces systems that are wrong in both directions in the same house.
Multiply the square footage by a figure from experience, round up for safety and order that size.
Measure every room, record window area and orientation, establish actual insulation levels, and calculate the heat loss and gain from the building as it exists.
Oversized equipment is the most common problem we find in existing Spokane homes, and it comes from a reasonable instinct applied wrongly. Contractors round up to be safe, then round up again for the coldest possible day, and the result is a system with far more capacity than the house needs on all but a handful of days a year.
The consequences are real. An oversized system satisfies the thermostat quickly and shuts down, producing temperature swings rather than steady comfort. In cooling it fails to run long enough to remove humidity. In heating it cycles, which is hard on the compressor. Correct sizing means the system runs longer at lower output, which is more comfortable, more efficient and easier on the equipment.
A standalone load calculation is priced as its own piece of work when you want it independently, for instance to check a quote you have been given elsewhere or to specify equipment for a build.
When we perform the installation, the calculation is part of the job rather than a separate charge. Either way the document is yours, including if you take it to another contractor.
Every room is measured, window areas and orientations recorded, and insulation and construction details established.
Spokane's Climate Zone 5B design temperatures set the indoor to outdoor difference the calculation works across.
Heat loss and heat gain are computed for each space individually, producing BTU per hour figures and airflow requirements.
You receive the written calculation with the room by room breakdown, which stays yours regardless of who does the installation.
A load calculation survey means measuring every room in the house, so access is the main requirement.
The design conditions behind every calculation are set out in our Spokane heat pump sizing and climate guide, including Climate Zone 5B temperatures, heating degree days and why local figures matter more than national defaults. Read the guide.
Call for a load calculation and an itemised quote. You keep the numbers either way.
Request a quote