Heat Pump Installation and Repair in San Rafael

Three San Rafael houses, three different projects

The late-1960s ducted home. Much of the city's stock is detached housing from around the end of the 1960s, built with a gas furnace and often an air conditioner added later. This is the cleanest conversion: one outdoor unit and one air handler replace furnace and condenser together on the existing duct runs. The catch is the ductwork. A heat pump supplies air at a lower temperature than a gas furnace, so leaky ducts and undersized returns that a furnace could power through become comfort complaints.

The Eichler. Terra Linda, Lucas Valley, and Marinwood hold some of the most recognizable mid-century housing in California, and two paths exist inside it. A multi-zone ductless system adds cooling and supplemental heat without touching the slab, which is the route most owners take. An air-to-water heat pump can replace a boiler and feed the original radiant loops, but only where those loops still hold pressure, which is established first rather than assumed. Both are covered on our Eichler home services page.

The older bayside and hillside home. Gerstle Park, Sun Valley, the hill neighborhoods, and the older bayside blocks bring wall furnaces, additions heated differently from the original house, tight side yards, and difficult equipment placement. Here the work is usually zone by zone, and a phased plan often beats one large project.

What goes wrong, and what each symptom usually means

A heat pump runs in both seasons, so it accumulates roughly twice the run hours of a furnace. Some of what alarms owners is normal, and some of what owners ignore is the actual fault.

• Long run times on a cold morning. Usually normal. A right-sized heat pump runs long and low rather than blasting and stopping. The exception is auxiliary electric heat engaging every cycle, which is a controls or sizing problem.
• Air that feels cooler than the old furnace. Normal, and the most common call after a conversion. If it feels genuinely cool rather than mild, suspect refrigerant charge or the reversing valve.
• Steam off the outdoor unit in winter. Normal defrost operation, and it looks worse than it is.
• Ice that never clears. Not normal. A defrost control, a sensor, or a reversing valve that is not shifting.
• Heating works, cooling does not, or the reverse. Almost always the reversing valve or its solenoid, since everything else is shared.
• Short cycling. Oversized equipment, low charge, restricted airflow, or a thermostat configured for furnace logic.
• Rising bills with no change in comfort. Frequently auxiliary resistance heat running when it should be locked out, which commissioning catches and a rushed install does not.
• Water on the wall below a ductless head. Condensate pitch or a clogged drain. Those heads drain by gravity.
• A new noise. Fan bearings, a loose compressor mount, or debris in the outdoor unit.

One rule underneath all of it: refrigerant is never consumed. If a system is low, it is leaking, and finding the leak matters more than the top-off.

A fifth item decides how the system feels to live with: the controls. A heat pump needs a thermostat that understands heat pump staging and locks out auxiliary heat correctly. A furnace thermostat left on the wall after a conversion will quietly run expensive backup heat for years.

The electrical question that decides most conversions

A heat pump needs a dedicated 240-volt circuit, and a conversion that also removes a gas furnace adds real load to a house designed around gas. Plenty of San Rafael homes still run 100-amp services, and many already carry an EV charger. Adding a heat pump on top can require a load calculation and, in some houses, a service upgrade before the equipment goes in.

That is a reason to find out during the quote rather than on installation day. We check panel capacity as part of the proposal, and because we hold a C-10 electrical license alongside the C-20, any needed panel upgrade happens inside the same project instead of through a second contractor.

Permits, plan review, and HERS testing in San Rafael

Inside city limits the permit goes through the City of San Rafael Building Division. The city classifies a changeout of a "Furnace, A/C units and Ducting" in the same location as a minor permit, a category it describes as generally not needing plan review with a few exceptions, and it lists new A/C installation among the work that does get reviewed. The translation for heat pump projects: replacing existing equipment in its existing location is the fast path, while putting a condenser where none existed, or moving equipment onto a roof, is more likely to be reviewed. The city also notes that minor permits such as water heaters and furnaces are valid for 180 days. Since February 2026, applications and inspection scheduling run through the city's OpenGov portal. Properties in the unincorporated areas around the city permit through the Marin County Community Development Agency.

Two state requirements sit on top of the local permit. Title 24 energy standards apply to HVAC alterations, and California's 2025 Building Energy Efficiency Standards took effect January 1, 2026. Independent HERS verification applies to much of that work: the California Energy Commission states that "Depending on the work being done, HERS testing may be mandatory. Properly permitted work will trigger any necessary HERS testing," and describes a rater who will "inspect and interact with the home's various features (HVAC equipment, air ducts and vents, and thermostat)." That rater does not work for the installing contractor, which is the point. A bid that omits permitting and HERS is not cheaper, it is incomplete, and the gap tends to surface during a home sale.

Rebates for San Rafael homeowners, and why the order matters

San Rafael is in MCE territory, which makes the incentive picture different from Sonoma County a few miles north.

MCE. Marin's community choice energy provider runs a heat pump rebate covering heat pump heating and cooling systems as well as heat pump water heaters. Stated eligibility is for MCE customers who own and have lived in a single-family detached home in MCE's service area for at least twelve months, with the work done by a contractor from MCE's participating list, who provides a home assessment and a quote that includes the rebate.

The term that catches people is this one, in MCE's own words: "To qualify for the rebates, you will not be able to install other home electrification projects (including solar, battery storage, or EV charging) for 12 months after your heat pump unit has been completely installed." The program also states that existing solar or EV charging must have been installed at least twelve months earlier.

That makes sequence a design decision in Marin. A household intending to add solar, a battery, an EV charger, and a heat pump over two years can lose eligibility purely by doing them in the wrong order. We map the sequence before anything is installed, and confirm current terms at quote time.

Living with a heat pump in this climate

A heat pump heats gently and continuously instead of in hot bursts. Supply air is warmer than the room but cooler than furnace air, and the house holds a steadier temperature as a result.

That steadiness is why deep thermostat setbacks work against you. Recovering ten degrees quickly is exactly the situation that calls in the auxiliary electric heat you are trying to avoid, so set it and leave it. In summer the same equipment becomes your air conditioner, and homes north of Puerto Suello Hill will lean on it far more than homes catching bay breeze.

Keeping a year-round system healthy

• Change filters on a heating-and-cooling schedule, not a furnace schedule. The system now runs in both seasons.
• Wash ductless head filters monthly during heavy use. They are washable, easy to forget, and performance falls off fast.
• Keep the outdoor unit clear. Leaf litter, enclosures built too tight, and plantings that grew in over three summers all restrict airflow the system needs in January as well as July.
• Make sure the outdoor unit drains. Winter operation produces defrost meltwater, and a unit sitting in a puddle has a shorter life.
• Have the charge and defrost cycle checked annually. Charge accuracy affects performance in both directions on a heat pump.
• Confirm the auxiliary heat lockout once a year. It is the setting most likely to be quietly costing you money.

Where we work in San Rafael

We serve every San Rafael neighborhood from our Petaluma headquarters, including Terra Linda, Lucas Valley, Marinwood, Peacock Gap, Sun Valley, Gerstle Park, downtown, the Canal, and the hillside neighborhoods where outages belong in the planning conversation. The Eichler tracts in particular are housing we work in constantly.

Scheduling advice specific to this city: plan heat pump projects in the shoulder seasons. Spring and fall give a load calculation, a duct test, a panel check, and the rebate paperwork room to move. The first cold snap and the first hot week both fill every HVAC calendar in Marin within days.

How to choose a heat pump contractor in San Rafael

Ask whether they will perform a room-by-room load calculation, and ask to see it. Sizing from square footage is guessing, and the guess is usually too big.

Ask whether they work on ductless systems and Eichlers, not only ducted equipment. In this city that one question decides whether they can help a large share of homeowners.

Ask whether they checked your electrical panel before quoting. If they have not, they do not yet know what the job costs.

Ask what the air district rule means for the equipment proposed. Anyone working in Marin should be able to explain Rule 9-4 accurately, including the part where it applies at burnout rather than immediately.

Ask about MCE's rebate terms, especially the twelve-month restriction on other electrification projects, and confirm participating-contractor status before signing anything.

That is how we have worked since 1932. We look at the house rather than the phone, we say what we found, we price it before starting, and we build to code.

Heat pump service across San Rafael and Marin County

One company, all trades: San Rafael heating and cooling, HVAC across Marin County, San Rafael home services, San Rafael plumbing, and San Rafael electrical. Related San Rafael services: furnace repair, AC repair, electrical panel upgrades, EV charger installation, solar, and Eichler home services.