Heat pump design & installation
Whole-house and room-by-room systems, ducted or ductless, designed around a load calculation and the condition of your ducts. One efficient system for both heating and cooling.
The Big Chill Heating & Cooling
Ethical heating, cooling and ventilation.
We convert homes from fossil fuels to air-source heat pumps for comfort that is cost-effective and environmentally sustainable. We also repair and maintain all HVAC systems, and our team has spent years making houses tighter first.
A division of Tay River Builders
- Master HVAC license
- Jesse Smith, New Jersey Master HVACR #19HC00253100
- BPI GoldStar contractor
- Certified Heating, AC & Heat Pump Professional and Building Analyst
- Equipment we trust
- Mitsubishi Hyper-Heat and Daikin Aurora heat pumps. We service almost anything.
- PSE&G programs
- Decarbonization incentives and on-bill repayment, where your house qualifies
What we do
Three things, done properly.
Most HVAC companies only see the box in the basement. We see the whole house it’s trying to heat.
Repair & maintenance of all HVAC
Furnaces, boilers, central air and heat pumps. Diagnosis that starts with measurements, and maintenance that keeps equipment running safely and efficiently.
Ventilation & airflow
Fresh-air ventilation for tighter houses, and duct and return fixes for the rooms that are always too hot or too cold.
What “ethical” means here
The right system, or sometimes no new system at all.
- 1
We size it to your house.
We choose equipment from a proper load calculation for your house instead of a rule of thumb or a square-footage chart.
- 2
House first, when that’s cheaper.
If sealing the attic or fixing the ducts will solve the problem for less than new equipment, we’ll tell you, and we can do that work too.
- 3
We measure, and show you.
Static pressure, airflow and room temperatures before and after. You see the numbers we see.
- 4
Straight answers.
If your system has good years left, we’ll say so. If something is unsafe, we’ll say that too.
- 5
Lower carbon, lower bills.
Heat pumps run on electricity, so a well-designed system gets cleaner as the grid does, and costs less to run in a tight house.
Why heat pumps
Moving heat beats making it.
A furnace burns fuel to make heat. A heat pump moves heat that’s already there: out of the outdoor air in winter, out of your house in summer. That’s why it can deliver several units of heat for every unit of electricity it uses.
- One system, both seasons. Heating and air conditioning from the same equipment.
- Steadier comfort. Variable-speed equipment runs low and long instead of blasting on and off, especially when it’s sized right.
- Better in a tight house. Seal and insulate first and the system you need gets smaller, quieter and cheaper.
From the field notes
“You can’t suck your way out of distribution problems.”
Why are second-floor rooms hot in summer? Usually because not enough cold air reaches them, not because they lack a “hot air return.” Jesse’s case for testing the hypothesis before spending a dime.
Read the noteQuestions
Good questions we hear a lot.
Will a heat pump keep my house warm in a New Jersey winter?
Modern cold-climate heat pumps are built to keep heating well below freezing. Whether one is right for your house depends on how much heat it loses, which is exactly what we calculate. Tightening the house first makes the answer easier and the system smaller.
Do I need ductwork?
Not necessarily. Heat pumps come in ducted and ductless versions. If you have ducts, we’ll test whether they’re up to the job; if you don’t, a ductless or compact ducted system can work well.
Can you service my existing furnace, boiler or air conditioner?
Yes. We repair and maintain all kinds of HVAC systems, not just heat pumps.
Which heat pumps do you install?
We’ll service almost anything, but we’re fussy about what we install. Our go-to equipment is Mitsubishi’s Hyper-Heat line and Daikin’s Aurora line.
Can you also do the insulation and air sealing?
Yes, and we plan the two together. The Big Chill is a division of Tay River Builders, whose crews have been air sealing and insulating homes since the late 2000s, with more than 2,000 energy retrofits behind them.
Are there rebates or incentives?
Often. PSE&G customers may qualify for its decarbonization program: on a recent Princeton install, the homeowner saved over $10,000 up front and is paying the remainder through seven years of on-bill repayment. Programs change frequently, so we’ll check what applies to your house when we put together a proposal.
Start a project
Thinking about a heat pump?
Start with a conversation and a look at your house. We'll tell you what size system you actually need, what to fix first, and what it will cost to run.