A rebate you lose by doing the work first is the most expensive kind
IronStroke works on heating, cooling and ventilation across Fullerton and north Orange County. Permits and testing are simply part of the job here. The thing almost nobody explains is the money around it — which programmes want approval before the work starts, and why we will not print a number for any of them.
Rebates and credits
Five kinds of work crossed with four situations. How rebate programmes actually behave, the sequence that decides whether you get one, and why this page contains no figures at all.
The order of events decides it
The most common way somebody in this county loses a rebate is not a form filled in wrongly. It is having the work done first. A great many programmes want an application, an assessment or a participating contractor before anything is installed, and once the equipment is in there is no route back.
So we raise it at the quote rather than at the invoice, even when the honest answer is that nothing applies to your job.
And the number we will not print
There is not a single dollar figure anywhere on the rebates page. Programmes open, close, run out of funds mid-year and change who qualifies. Any amount published on a contractor’s website is either out of date or about to be, and quoting one is how people end up disappointed by a job they were otherwise happy with.
Six things
Repair
No cooling and no heat, checked in order of cost. Capacitors, contactors, float switches, filters, thermostats and breakers before anything expensive is discussed.
Annual service
Charge verified by superheat and subcooling rather than by pressure alone, combustion tested on gas heat, and the readings written down so next year has something to compare with.
Replacement
Sized from the house, permitted, and tested as the job requires — with the permit and the testing shown as line items rather than folded in where you cannot see them.
Duct testing and sealing
Measured, then sealed where the measurement says to — and measured again, because on most jobs in California that second reading is what the test is.
Heat pumps
Including the awkward ones: a gas furnace replaced with a heat pump changes the electrical load, the ductwork requirement and sometimes the panel. We check all three before quoting.
Premises
Rooftop packaged units, split systems, extract and make-up air, and planned maintenance twice a year for shops, offices, clinics and light industrial.
Houses
North Orange County houses are mostly single storey, mostly 1955 to 1975, and mostly running their ductwork through an attic that gets brutally hot in September. That attic is where the comfort problems in this town actually live, and it is the first place we measure.
Premises
Shops, offices, clinics, a few restaurants and light industrial along the Chapman and Harbor corridors. Packaged rooftop units, extract that needs make-up air, and a written record per unit so the next person to look after the building inherits something.
Six things this website does not print
| Prices | A change-out with a permit, a duct test and possibly a panel upgrade is not one number. A figure here would be a guess, and the guess would flatter us. |
| A response time | We do not publish one. On the first hot week of September nobody in this county can honestly hold to it. We will tell you where you are in the queue when you ring. |
| Savings percentages | It depends on what you had, what you set it to, and what your utility charges at the hour you use it. Anybody printing a number has picked the flattering case. |
| Rebate amounts | Not one, anywhere, and the reason is on the rebates page. Programmes change and run out of money; a figure on a contractor’s website is either stale or about to be. |
| Reviews and ratings | There are none on this site. When there are real ones they will be somewhere you can check them, under their own names. |
Asked most often
Do I really need a permit to replace my air conditioner?
Yes. In essentially every California jurisdiction a change-out is permitted work, and separately the state energy code attaches verification requirements to certain measures — most commonly duct leakage, checked by an independent HERS rater rather than by the contractor who did the work. Exactly what applies depends on your climate zone, the scope and the code edition in force, which is why we put it in writing before you sign rather than printing a fixed list.
A cheaper quote did not mention a permit. Is it actually cheaper?
No, it is a different job. The permit and any verification do not stop existing because they were left off the page. When you compare quotes, check each one for four things: the permit, named and priced; the verification, with whose job it is to arrange it; the equipment size as a number; and what is happening to the ductwork. A quote missing any of those is less complete rather than less expensive.
Can I just replace the outdoor unit?
Sometimes, and it is never as simple as it is sold. The outdoor unit is designed to work with a particular indoor coil, the refrigerant has to match, the line set has to be dealt with properly, and it is still a permitted job. Where the indoor half is genuinely recent and genuinely compatible it can be the right, cheaper answer. Where it is twenty years old, it is a system that will run without doing what the label says.
The previous owner replaced the system without a permit. What now?
It is very common and it is not a catastrophe. There are three reasonable positions: leave it and know it will surface at sale, go back to the installer if it was recent and ask them to permit it, or permit it after the fact, which most jurisdictions allow and which costs more than doing it in order. What we will not do is tell you it does not matter, or frighten you into replacing equipment that is working.
Is a heat pump a like-for-like swap for my furnace?
No, and it is worth knowing that before you get quotes. It changes the electrical load and sometimes needs panel work, and because a heat pump moves more air for the same effect it often changes what the ductwork has to do. It can be an excellent decision in this climate. It is a bigger job than swapping a box, and a quote that treats it as a swap has left something out.
Which areas do you cover?
Fullerton, Brea, Placentia, Anaheim, La Habra, Buena Park, Yorba Linda and Orange.
East Chapman Avenue, Fullerton
1318 E Chapman Ave, Fullerton, CA 92831. We cover Fullerton, Brea, Placentia, Anaheim, La Habra, Buena Park, Yorba Linda and Orange.
Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm. (209) 593-3526