Most houses in Downey have more people in them than they were drawn for
ArrowPoint works on heating, cooling and ventilation across Downey and the cities around it. The houses here were built for a family of four in 1955 and a great many of them now hold three generations. That changes what comfortable means, and almost nobody designs for it.
A full house
Five things that happen when a household grows, crossed with four levers you might actually have. It starts with what is free, because in most of these houses the free answers have never been tried.
The house did not change. The way it is used did.
A back bedroom that was a spare room for thirty years is now somebody’s bedroom, all night, every night. A garage became a room. Somebody is home at two in the afternoon who never used to be. None of that is visible from outside, and all of it changes which rooms have to work.
So we ask about it. Not out of nosiness — because the answer usually tells us which register to measure.
Start with the free things
In most of these houses the free answers have not been tried. A damper nobody has touched since the Nineties. A door kept shut with no way for air to get back out. A register under a bed. A thermostat set to recover at five when the house is occupied at two. We check those before we quote anything, and sometimes that is the visit.
Six things
Repair
No cooling and no heat, checked in order of cost, with the reading that proves the answer shown to you rather than described.
Annual service
Charge verified by superheat and subcooling, coil and drain cleaned, combustion tested on gas heat, and the readings written down.
Balancing
Dampers, registers and return paths set so the rooms that are used get the air. Cheap, unglamorous and frequently the whole answer.
Duct testing
Leakage and static pressure measured. In an attic that reaches well over 130°F, a return-side leak is costing you every minute the system runs.
Ductless
For the converted garage, the added bedroom, and the room that was never going to be served properly from the existing system.
Premises
Rooftop packaged units, split systems, extract and make-up air, and planned maintenance twice a year for shops, restaurants, offices and light industrial.
Houses
Post-war single storey, attic ducts, block walls, and in many cases a garage that is now a room. We measure the rooms people actually use rather than assuming the plan is still true.
Premises
Shops and restaurants along Firestone and Lakewood, small offices, clinics and light industrial. A written record per unit and planned maintenance twice a year against that record.
Five things this website does not print
| Prices | Balancing, duct work and equipment are three different jobs. A figure here would be a guess, and it would be wrong in our favour about half the time. |
| A response time | We do not publish one. We will tell you where you are in the queue when you ring, and say if somebody else can get to you sooner. |
| Savings percentages | It depends on the house, the summer and how many people are in it. Anybody printing a number has chosen the flattering case. |
| 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
Should I close the vents in rooms nobody uses?
One, probably fine. Three, no. The blower still works against the system, and closing several registers raises the pressure it pushes against, which reduces total airflow, makes the system less efficient and can force more air out through leaks in the attic ducts. The thing that actually works is balancing at the branch dampers in the ducts rather than at the grilles in the rooms — and leaving a closed-up room partly open rather than fully shut, so it still gets some air movement.
One bedroom is always five degrees warmer. Do we need a bigger system?
Almost certainly not. If the rest of the house is comfortable then the machine is working and the air is simply not arriving in that room, or not able to leave it. The usual causes, cheapest first: something in front of the register, a damper set decades ago for a different household, no return path because the door is shut all night, or a crushed or disconnected duct. A measurement at that register settles it in about twenty minutes.
Our bills went up when more people moved in. Is that normal?
Part of it is unavoidable — more people, more hours occupied, more cooking. But a good part is usually avoidable and it is rarely about efficiency ratings. The house is now being cooled through the hottest part of the afternoon, which makes duct leakage matter far more than it did. And a thermostat schedule written for an empty house is now working against you every single day.
Can one thermostat keep everybody happy?
No, and we would rather say so than sell you something that does not fix it. Where people genuinely want different temperatures — an older parent and a teenager in the same house is the classic — balancing helps and a separate system for one room helps more, but no single machine resolves it. Anybody telling you a new system will is selling equipment.
The converted garage never gets comfortable. What is the fix?
Usually its own system rather than a share of the existing one. A converted garage has an uninsulated slab, a wall that used to be outside and often almost nothing above the ceiling, so it takes more to condition than its size suggests. Extending the existing duct takes air from the rooms that already had it, so the new room is mediocre and everybody else is slightly worse. A ductless system for that space is a smaller job and it actually works.
Which areas do you cover?
Downey, Bellflower, Paramount, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, Pico Rivera, South Gate and Bell Gardens.
Lakewood Boulevard, Downey
12103 Lakewood Blvd, Downey, CA 90242. We cover Downey, Bellflower, Paramount, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, Pico Rivera, South Gate and Bell Gardens.
Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 5pm. (949) 703-9897