Heating and cooling an older Riverside or Avondale home

Houses built for breezes

Riverside and Avondale are full of homes built before central air conditioning existed, designed to stay comfortable with high ceilings, tall windows, deep porches and cross-breezes. Many have since had air conditioning added, sometimes well and sometimes with ducts squeezed into attics and closets in ways that never quite worked. The houses are beautiful and worth protecting, and that shapes every HVAC decision.

The goal is to cool and dry the house without cutting into plaster, trim and floors that can't be replaced, and without putting equipment where it damages the street view the neighborhood is known for.

What the historic district asks

Riverside Avondale is a designated City of Jacksonville historic district, and exterior changes to homes within it require a Certificate of Appropriateness from the City's Planning Department. The City's preservation guidelines for the district include a section on heating and air conditioning, and some applications can be approved at staff level while others go to the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission.

In practice, the question is usually about anything visible from the street: a new condenser, a wall-mounted line set cover, a roof penetration or a through-wall unit. Placing outdoor equipment at the side or rear, screened by landscaping or a fence, is the usual direction. Check whether your property is inside the district before you plan the job.

Ductless systems

Ductless mini splits are often the cleanest answer. Each indoor head connects to an outdoor unit through a small line set that can run through a closet, an attic or along an inconspicuous exterior corner. Several rooms can share one outdoor unit, so a whole house can be cooled with one or two condensers placed out of sight.

The trade-off is the look of the indoor heads. Wall-mounted heads are the least expensive, ceiling cassettes and slim ducted units hide better, and placement matters for comfort as much as appearance. We plan head positions with you before any drilling so they work with the room rather than against it.

Small-duct and conventional ducted systems

Where the attic has room, a ducted system is still possible. High-velocity small-duct systems use flexible tubes a couple of inches across that snake through walls and attics with small round outlets, which can suit homes with ornate ceilings. Conventional ducts work too, but only when the attic or crawl space can carry properly sized runs, and only when they're sealed, because attic heat in Jacksonville punishes leaky ductwork.

If the house already has old ducts, test them before reusing them. Ducts added decades ago are often undersized, disconnected or leaking, and a new system on bad ducts never performs the way it should.

Humidity in older houses

Older homes leak more air than new ones, which in a humid climate means more moisture coming in. A system that's oversized for the rooms it serves cools them quickly and shuts off before it has removed much water, leaving that damp, cool feeling. Sizing each zone properly and, where needed, adding a dehumidifier keeps the house dry, which also protects old wood floors and plaster.

Planning the job

Start with a load calculation for the house as it is, then decide where equipment can go: which rooms need heads or outlets, where line sets or ducts can run without cutting finishes, and where outdoor units can sit out of the street view. Then confirm whether the exterior parts need a Certificate of Appropriateness and allow time for it.

A careful installer protects floors, works around plaster and plans every penetration. Ask how line sets will be routed and how the outdoor unit will be screened before you sign.

Heating the same house

Heat pumps, including ductless heat pumps, heat as well as cool, which suits Jacksonville winters, when cold snaps are short. Older homes with original radiators or floor furnaces often switch to heat pump heating when the cooling system goes in, and the outdoor unit does both jobs.