Thermostat Installation in Livonia, Michigan

Thermostat installation in Livonia is a small job that we do a lot of, partly because so many of them go wrong the first time. A smart thermostat bought online and wired by color in a 1950s–70s brick ranches, colonials and tri-levels house near Burton Hollow ends up with a blank screen, a furnace that clicks on and off, or an air conditioner running when heat was called. Temprasure comes out from Ypsilanti, about 30 minutes to Livonia, opens the furnace and the thermostat, lands every conductor by what it actually does, adds a common wire where the cable does not have one, and configures the unit for the equipment you have. Then we enroll you in the DTE Energy rebate and show you the app.

Livonia houses and what that means for thermostats

Livonia's housing is the biggest block of 1950s through 1970s construction in our radius, and we see every variation of it. The 1950s brick ranches between Joy Road and Five Mile are on full block basements with a single-return furnace and a center trunk, typically on their second or third furnace with a condenser added in the 80s or 90s. The tri-levels and quad-levels from the 1960s, common between Five and Seven Mile, have a lower level that never gets enough air and a bedroom level that overheats in summer. The 1970s colonials in the northwest toward Eight Mile and Newburgh are larger, with longer duct runs and two-and-a-half to three-ton condensers that are often oversized. Rosedale Gardens is the exception: 1920s and 30s Tudors with Michigan basements, retrofitted duct and occasionally a boiler. Finished basements are nearly universal, and the furnace is frequently boxed into a closet that limits combustion air and filter access. Electrical service is 100 amps on most pre-1975 houses.

Two-stage and variable-speed equipment in Livonia is often running at a fraction of what it can because of the thermostat. The subdivisions in 48150 that were built or re-equipped in the 1950s–70s brick ranches, colonials and tri-levels got two-stage furnaces and air conditioners, and a lot of them were paired with a basic single-stage thermostat that never calls for high. On a cold Wayne County morning the furnace plods along on low for an hour; on a humid July afternoon the air conditioner never ramps up enough to pull moisture out of the house. We wire the second stage, set the staging logic in the thermostat rather than leaving it to the furnace board's timer, and set the dehumidification call so the system runs the way the equipment was designed to in Livonia.

With about 95,000, one of the largest cities in Wayne County outside Detroit residents and housing that runs from the 1950s–70s brick ranches, colonials and tri-levels around Country Homes to the newer streets near Castle Gardens, Livonia keeps us busy year-round. The equipment is on DTE Energy for heat and DTE Energy for cooling, the basements near Rotary Park are prone to the same moisture issues as the rest of Wayne County, and the ductwork in a lot of these houses was never sized for the air conditioner that was bolted on later. We are 20 miles away, we service every brand, and we quote a flat rate before we start.

Local details we plan around in Livonia

• Tri-levels and quad-levels make up a large share of the city and almost always need duct balancing or a dedicated lower-level supply to be comfortable on one system.
• Rosedale Gardens has historic district guidelines that affect exterior equipment placement on the 1920s and 30s houses.
• Livonia water is Detroit-system supply, so water heater failures here are driven by age and the sheer number of tanks that are past 15 years.
• Livonia is flat and almost entirely built out, with mature street trees on the older blocks that give shade in summer but drop leaves into condensers every fall. The Middle Rouge through Hines Park and Bell Creek and Tarabusi Creek through the middle of the city create damp pockets, and basements near those drains need dehumidification in summer. Winter is freeze-thaw cycling with the full effect of polar vortex nights on 70-year-old brick with minimal insulation.