Old House efficiency
The Honest Truth About Cooling an Old House
Everyone wants a house that stays perfectly cool, uses almost no energy, and looks exactly the way it did in 1962. That's a reasonable thing to want. It's also not quite how physics works.
The system we install is only part of the equation. Before your new equipment ever turns on, roughly 40–50% of your home's heat gain is coming through the windows. The next largest contributors are wall insulation — or the lack of it — and attic insulation that's either thin, settled, or simply wasn't up to modern standards when it was put in. In an older Alabama home, your AC isn't fighting the summer heat so much as it's fighting the house itself.
No SEER2 rating fixes a single-pane window. No HSPF2 rating replaces missing wall insulation. The most efficient system on the market will run longer, work harder, and cost more to operate than a standard system in a properly sealed house — every single time.
Where the Heat Actually Comes From
| Source | Typical Share of Heat Gain |
|---|---|
| Windows and doors | 40–50% |
| Attic / roof | 20–30% |
| Wall insulation | 10–20% |
| Air infiltration (gaps, cracks) | 10–15% |
| Floors / foundation | 5–10% |
What We Can and Can't Do
We can right-size your system so it's not working against a house it was never meant to keep up with. We can assess your ductwork and make sure conditioned air is actually reaching the rooms that need it. We can give you an honest picture of what to expect from a new system given what we see in your home.
What we can't do is sell you a unit that solves a window problem or an insulation problem. We'll tell you that clearly before any proposal goes out — because a homeowner who understands why their house runs the way it does makes better decisions than one who replaces equipment every ten years wondering why the bills never went down.
Our Role in the Process
We're not energy auditors and we don't do insulation or window work. But we've been in enough Alabama attics and crawlspaces to know what we're looking at, and we'll tell you what we see. If there are obvious efficiency issues that are going to work against your new system, we'll say so — and point you toward the people who can help address them.
The goal is a system that performs the way you expect it to, in the house you actually have. That starts with an honest conversation about both.
Overland Mechanical · Springville, AL · We'll tell you what we see.