Mini-Split Installation in Fox Island, WA

Mini-Splits for Fox Island's Housing Stock

Who bills you for power decides what you can claim. Fox Island is served by Peninsula Light Company (a member-owned co-op). That means $1,700 for a variable-speed heat pump replacing an electric forced-air furnace, $1,200 for a standard conversion, $1,000 for a ductless system, and $600 for upgrading an existing heat pump or a propane, oil or zonal-electric system. Peninsula Light requires AHRI certification documents and equipment rated at least HSPF2 7.5 / SEER2 14.3, and allows only one ductless incentive per residential meter.

Fox Island does not share Seattle's weather, and the code says so. Fox Island is not listed in the state energy code's design-temperature table, so the nearest station — Tacoma CO, at 29°F — is the starting point (WAC 51-11C-80100, Table C-1). That is the number a Manual J load calculation for your home is run against, and it is the difference between equipment that carries the house on its own and equipment that leans on expensive backup heat every cold snap. Fox Island shares that number with the towns immediately around it, but it sits 12 degrees off the 17°F end of our service area down in Thurston County — which is why we size off your address rather than a regional average.

What we expect to find in a Fox Island home. The local stock runs to waterfront estates with private beaches and docks, Northwest Contemporary custom builds, older mid-century homes on large lots, and historic homes on acreage with Mt. Rainier views. That usually means propane furnaces, electric furnaces and baseboard, and heat pumps — there is no natural gas service on the island at all. There is no natural gas here, so the honest comparison is against propane and electric resistance — and a heat pump beats both on running cost. Whether installing a ductless mini-split is the right answer for your house is something we tell you after we look at it, not before.

The parts of the job that are specific to this address. In Fox Island, the mechanical permit is issued by Pierce County Planning & Public Works (Fox Island is unincorporated Pierce County), and we pull it, pay it and meet the inspector; homes near Hale Passage and Carr Inlet — the whole island is saltwater-exposed get corrosion-rated coil coatings and a twice-yearly coil rinse instead of annual service — salt air is what kills condensers early on this shoreline; burn bans and wildfire-smoke advisories here are called by Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, which is the season that makes filtration worth specifying properly.