Missouri asks a lot of a comfort system. It has to hold a house through a humid
August and a January that drops below freezing, which means every piece of
equipment here is sized for two jobs rather than one. Get that sizing wrong and the
system short-cycles through summer and struggles through winter.
What that sizing should be depends heavily on where the house is. A 1920s bungalow
in Webster Groves with ductwork added decades after it was built has almost nothing
in common with a 2006 subdivision home in St. Peters, even at the same square
footage. Knowing which one we are walking into is most of the reason our quotes
hold up.