My wife and I were excited to buy and move into a historical home.
We just loved all the original features such as hardwood floors, ornate banisters on the stairway and solid wood doors. The house includes large windows, ten-foot ceilings and tiffany light fixtures. There is an enormous wrap-around porch across the front of the porch and a balcony that’s accessible through French doors in the master bedroom. The biggest drawback was the lack of a central heating and cooling system. When we first purchased the home, we got by with electric baseboard heaters and window cooling units. We discovered that handling the severe weather in our area is impossible with portable units. The heating and cooling equipment detracted from the decor and cost us quite a bit to operate. It wasn’t long before we were frustrated with freezing in the winter and sweating during the summer months. My wife and I were expecting a huge remodeling project in order to install conventional ductwork. We figured the plaster walls and ceilings would need to come down, creating a gigantic mess, huge expense and a very time-consuming process. However, the HVAC contractor told us about high velocity heating and cooling that is designed specifically to retrofit into older homes. Very narrow diameter, flexible ducts are able to be snaked into the walls and worked around pipes, studs and electrical wires without causing damage. Vents that are only six-inches in diameter can be installed just about anywhere and come in a variety of styles and colors. The actual heating/cooling equipment is located in the attic