Hi, I'm Ethan Joyce. I own and run this company, and it's a small one on purpose. When you call, you get me. When the truck pulls up, it's me and my installers — not a salesman trying to close you on the most expensive option before he leaves.
We don't work on commission. There's nobody here whose job is to talk you into a bigger system than you need. I'd rather do fewer jobs and do them right. So before I quote anything, I want to actually see your house. Walk through it with you. Look at the ductwork, check the insulation, ask which rooms are too hot in July and too cold in February. The job is to figure out what your home actually needs, then put that in — not whatever has the biggest margin.
"A $15,000 top-of-the-line unit installed badly will run worse than a $5,000 unit installed right. Every time. The name on the box doesn't deliver the efficiency — the install does."
Every install starts with the numbers
I run a real Manual J load calculation for every system — not a rule-of-thumb guess off the square footage. That means accounting for ceiling heights, window area and orientation, insulation levels, air leakage, and how each room actually gets used. Oversizing equipment is the most common shortcut in this business, and it's what causes half the comfort and humidity problems people end up living with: short-cycling, cold-and-clammy summers, hot-and-cold swings room to room. I won't do it. On whole-home heat pump installs I design to roughly 120% of the calculated heating load so the system still has capacity to spare on the coldest morning of the year.
What separates us as professionals
Most of what determines whether a heat pump hits its rated efficiency happens during the install, in steps the customer never sees and most installers rush or skip. Here's exactly what we do differently on every single job.
We purge lines with dry nitrogen the entire time the torch is on them. Brazing in open air bakes black oxidation inside the pipe — that scale breaks loose, circulates with refrigerant and oil, and clogs the metering device and compressor. Flowing nitrogen keeps the inside bright and clean, the way it left the factory.
Before any refrigerant goes in, we pressurize the entire line-set and coil with dry nitrogen and hold it — not for five minutes, but often several hours or overnight on a larger job. A slow weep at a flare or braze joint only shows up when you hold pressure long enough to see the gauge move. We log start and end pressure and don't proceed until the system proves it's leak-tight.
We evacuate with a proper vacuum pump and measure with an electronic micron gauge — not the needle gauge on the manifold. Goal: 500 microns or below, then a decay test with the pump isolated. If the reading climbs, there's moisture or a leak — we go back and fix it. Any moisture left inside mixes with refrigerant to form acids that slowly destroy the compressor.
We charge to the manufacturer's spec by weight on a calibrated scale, adjusted for actual line-set length — not "beer-can cold" feel or gauge guessing. Then we verify by checking subcooling (and superheat where applicable) at steady-state. An over- or undercharged system loses efficiency immediately and shortens its own life.
A heat pump can only move heat as well as the air system feeding it. We measure external static pressure, set the blower correctly, and balance airflow so every room gets what the load calc says it needs. High static from undersized ducts quietly strangles even the best equipment — so we find it and address it.
We pitch and trap the condensate line properly so it drains every time. The electrical gets its own correctly-sized breaker, a proper disconnect, and a clean whip — to code, inspected, and safe.
When the system is running we commission it with real instruments and write the numbers down: vacuum reading, charge weight, subcooling and superheat, supply and return temps, static pressure, and dual-fuel changeover where applicable. Then we walk you through the thermostat, show you the filters, and explain the maintenance that keeps it running.
Flowing nitrogen, a long pressure test, a deep verified vacuum, a weighed-and-checked charge, measured airflow, and honest commissioning don't show up in a sales pitch — but they're the entire difference between a system that runs quietly for fifteen years and one that gives you headaches the first summer. I do them on every job, on the $5,000 unit and the $15,000 unit alike. The install doesn't change based on what the equipment cost.
Honest work, and someone who's still here next year
When you hire me, you get a real load calculation, an install done to a standard most companies cut corners on, all the Mass Save rebate paperwork handled for you, and someone who answers the same phone next year if you ever need anything. Same name on the truck. That's the whole point of running it this way.
Let's talk about your home
No pressure, no sales pitch — just a straight look at what your house actually needs, and an install done right.