The Load-Up Audit
$390once — credited back
- Room-by-room Manual J load calculation
- Blower-door and duct leakage numbers
- Twelve months of bills read line by line
- The one-page plan: what to swap, in what order
Yours to keep whoever does the work — and credited in full against any Allwatt plan.
The Fuel Swap
$14,800typical, before rebates
- Cold-climate heat pump sized to the audit
- Heat-pump water heater on the same circuit
- Propane tank decommissioned and hauled
- Rebates filed: median $4,100 back
The furnace comes out the week the heat pump starts — never a morning without heat.
The Whole Housetop
$41,600before rebates & credits
- Everything in the Fuel Swap, plus
- 9.8 kW rooftop array + 13.5 kWh battery
- 200-amp panel and charger-ready circuit
- Rebates AND the 30% credit filed together
One project, one crew, one warranty desk — the plan the valley’s propane dealers dread.
How it runs
Ninety days, start to embers
The sequence is the product: audit before equipment, panel before heat pump, array against the load you are about to have. Ninety days is the median valley house, crane day included — and the one-year true-up letter at the end is standard, not an upsell.
Week 1
The audit
Two house-days: load calculation, blower door, duct pressures, and your last twelve bills read line by line. The one-page plan follows — what to swap, in what order, and what each step does to the bill.
Weeks 2–3
Design & filings
Heat-pump selection against the load calc, array modelled against the NEW electric load rather than the old propane-era one, panel schedule drawn, every rebate and credit application filed by us. You sign the plan once.
Weeks 4–5
The quiet end first
Panel and circuits upgraded, attic and crawl air-sealed where the audit said it pays, heat-pump water heater set. The old water heater leaves the same afternoon its replacement starts.
Weeks 6–8
The swap
Heat pump set and commissioned against the load calc, furnace decommissioned, propane tank hauled with a receipt. The house is never without heat: the new system starts the morning the old one stops.
Weeks 9–12
The housetop & true-up
Array set and interconnected, battery commissioned to the outage list, and at the one-year mark a written true-up — modelled bill against the real one, with the difference explained in sentences, not spreadsheets.
Propane is not an energy policy; it is a habit with a delivery schedule. Every house we finish in the valley is one more truck route that gets a little shorter.
Services
What one crew swaps
01
The cold-climate heat pump
Sized from a room-by-room Manual J, not a square-foot multiplier — which is why ours are routinely a size smaller than the quotes they replace. Cold-climate rated to −13°F with resistance backup that the monitoring data says almost never engages in the Tine valley. Installed and commissioned by our own refrigerant-certified crew.
02
Solar against the NEW load
Most arrays are quoted against yesterday’s bills. We model the array against the house you are about to become — heat pump, water heater, the car — so the kilowatts match the load they will actually meet. Shade-traced, string-or-micro argued by the roof, and production-guaranteed against the printed model.
03
The panel, once
Two hundred amps, charger-ready, and done ONE time — the single most expensive way to electrify is a panel upgraded twice by two trades who never met. Our spark happens before the heat pump, on the same permit, on the same day the water heater lands.
04
The envelope, where it pays
The audit names the leaks worth chasing and we chase exactly those: attic tops-ups, crawl encapsulation where the numbers say so, duct sealing measured by the before-and-after pressure test. Efficiency bought by the kilowatt you never have to generate beats any panel made.
The Bend & the Tine valley, 2025 — 2026
Houses that came off the truck
Six finished projects from last season, photographed at their one-year true-up. Captions carry what came out and what the bill did — the two numbers every kitchen-table conversation actually wants.
Do heat pumps actually work in a real valley winter?
The cold-climate units we fit carry full capacity to 5°F and useful heat to −13°F, which the valley has touched twice this decade. The audit sizes resistance backup for the hours below that, and the monitoring data from our fleet shows the backup running a handful of hours a year — at which point the question stops being philosophical and becomes a line on a graph.
Why not just do solar and keep the furnace?
Because the array would be sized to a load you are about to change, and because propane-era bills are the wrong denominator. Electrify first, then generate: the array meets the heat pump at the panel, the same kilowatt heats the house at a third of propane’s cost per therm-equivalent, and the roof you buy is the roof the house will actually need.
What do the rebates and credits actually amount to?
Median valley project last year: $4,100 in heat-pump and efficiency rebates, plus the 30% federal credit on the solar and battery. We file all of it as part of the work — the $390 audit is credited back, the applications go in with the permits, and the cheque schedule lands in your welcome folder with dates on it.
Can we stage it — heat pump this year, solar next?
Yes, and the plan is drawn for exactly that: the audit prices each phase, the panel and circuits go in ONCE at phase one sized for phase two, and the array’s model is locked so next year’s price is this year’s math plus rack. About half the valley stages; the other half wants the single crane day and one muddy month.
What happens to the propane tank?
Pumped out, decommissioned to code, hauled with a receipt, and the concrete pads left clean or broken out — your call, quoted either way. The tank rental that outlived the furnace stops the same week, and yes, that closing invoice is oddly satisfying to read.
The five every kitchen table asks, answered the way the true-up letters answer them — with numbers off real valley houses and no adjectives doing a noun’s job. The shop line below runs seven to six; the audit calendar usually opens a slot inside ten days.
Nine seasons off the truck
The valley, in figures
Three quotes before Allwatt wanted to sell me twelve kilowatts of panels for a house with a propane furnace. Allwatt read the bills, sold me a heat pump FIRST, then eight — and the true-up letter says the model landed within six dollars. The tank is a planter now.
The panel was done once, on a Tuesday, with the heat pump and the water heater landing the same week. My neighbour had his panel done twice by two companies who blamed each other. I have re-told that story at every dinner since November.
We staged — heat pump year one, solar year two — and the price of phase two matched the plan to the dollar. When the ice storm took the street out for a night, the battery ran the furnace board and the fridge and I slept through the part everyone else tells stories about.
The audit calendar opens ten days out · rebate filing included in every plan · the true-up letter is standard on all work · (555) 323-9412 · plan@allwatthome.example
Start with the audit — the plan follows
Twelve months of bills and a rough house age are enough to book the $390 Load-Up Audit; the one-page plan lands a week later and it is yours whoever does the work. plan@allwatthome.example