You put solar on the roof and the summer bill still went up
Yorkline works on heating, cooling and ventilation across Antioch and the east county. A very large share of the houses here have panels on them, and the commonest thing people say to us is that it did not do what they expected. Usually the panels are fine. Something else is going on.
We have solar
Five kinds of set-up crossed with four questions. What solar does and does not change about cooling a house, when it is actually worth running the system, and the numbers we will not give you.
Panels do not make a hot attic cooler
Solar changes where the electricity comes from. It does not change how much the house needs, and in this part of the county the house needs a lot — two-storey, attic ducts, west-facing glass and afternoons that get genuinely hot once the delta breeze drops.
A system that is oversized, badly charged or leaking a third of its air into the attic uses the same amount whether the roof is generating or not. The panels simply make it less obvious.
And the numbers we refuse
We will not tell you what your exports are worth or which tariff you are on. Those change, they are your utility’s to state, and a heating contractor guessing about them has cost people real money. What we will do is measure what your system uses and when.
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, combustion tested on gas heat, and the readings written down so next year has something to compare against.
Duct testing
Leakage and static pressure measured. In a two-storey house with attic duct, this is where most of the summer bill actually goes.
The upstairs
Duct sizing, return paths and dampers measured before anybody suggests a second system or more capacity.
Heat pumps
Including the electrical side. A heat pump changes the load on a panel that may already be carrying solar equipment and a car charger.
Premises
Rooftop packaged units, extract and make-up air, and planned maintenance twice a year for retail, offices, clinics and light industrial.
Houses
Mostly two-storey, mostly built from the eighties on, mostly with the ductwork in an attic that gets extremely hot by four in the afternoon. The top floor is the complaint in about three calls out of four, and it is usually a distribution problem rather than a capacity one.
Premises
Retail, offices, clinics and light industrial across the east county. A written record per unit, maintenance twice a year, and a straight answer about what a rooftop unit is actually costing to run.
Six things this website does not print
| Anything about your tariff | Never. We will not tell you what your exports are worth, which rate plan you are on or what a kilowatt-hour costs you at four in the afternoon. That is your utility’s to state and it changes. |
| Prices | Duct work, balancing and equipment are three different jobs. A figure here would be a guess. |
| A response time | We do not publish one. We will tell you where you are in the queue when you ring. |
| Savings percentages | No figure for duct sealing, for a heat pump, or for anything else. It depends on the house and the summer. |
| Reviews and ratings | There are none on this site. When there are real ones they will be somewhere you can check them. |
Asked most often
We have solar and the summer bill still went up. Why?
There are four mechanical explanations and they are all measurable. The house uses more than anybody assumed, usually because of duct leakage into a very hot attic. The system runs longer than it should, because of charge, a dirty coil or restricted ductwork. It runs at the wrong times, because of a schedule written for a different household. Or the load simply grew — more people at home, a car charger, a second fridge. What we will not do is explain your tariff to you.
Will you tell us which rate plan to be on?
No, and we would be careful of any contractor who will. Rate plans, export values and peak hours change, they are your utility’s to state, and we have watched people be given confident wrong answers about them by tradespeople. What we will tell you is how much your system runs and when, which is a genuinely useful number to take to somebody who does understand your billing.
The upstairs never keeps up. Do we need a second system?
Usually not, and it should follow a measurement rather than a summer of frustration. If the downstairs is comfortable the machine is making cold air — it is simply not arriving upstairs or cannot leave once it does. The four causes, in the order we find them: duct runs that are too small or too long, a return path that cannot get air back down from bedrooms with the doors shut, a damper somebody set years ago, and leakage into an attic at 140 degrees.
Should we add zoning?
Sometimes, and it should follow a static pressure measurement rather than precede one. Zoning added to ductwork that is already restricted makes the restriction worse, because closing zones raises the pressure the blower works against. Measure first; zone second if the numbers support it.
Do you work on solar panels or batteries?
No, in any form. We do not install, service or advise on photovoltaic systems or storage, and we will not tell you whether your array is performing. There is one battery question we can help with: air conditioning is a large concentrated load and a compressor start draws far more than it draws while running, so whether a battery and inverter can actually start your outdoor unit during an outage is worth asking your storage installer in writing.
Which areas do you cover?
Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, Pittsburg, Bay Point, Discovery Bay, Concord and Martinez.
A Street, Antioch
1614 A St, Antioch, CA 94509. We cover Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, Pittsburg, Bay Point, Discovery Bay, Concord and Martinez.
Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 4.30pm. (623) 283-1863