HVAC Installation in Santa Fe, NM
A new system here has to be sized for elevation, infiltration of older adobe, and the fact that some houses still share a closet with a water heater. We install furnaces, AC, and ductless, correct the ducts we can reach, and start the system with combustion or charge numbers written down. 505-316-4231.
A new system here has to be sized for elevation, infiltration of older adobe, and the fact that some houses still share a closet with a water heater. We install furnaces, AC, and ductless, correct the ducts we can reach, and start the system with combustion or charge numbers written down. 505-316-4231.
Content reviewed 2026-10-01.
Replacement is not “same tonnage”
The old 80% furnace may have been wrong in 1998. We look at the house. If you want the cheapest same-size swap, we can do that too — we will still set altitude parts and a legal vent.
Adobe infiltration and glass
A west-facing Territorial with single-pane and a leaky portal is not a Manual J from Phoenix. We walk the rooms. We will not drop a 5-ton on ducts that can only feed a 3.
Permit, vent, and a written startup
City of Santa Fe wants a permit on replacements more often than people think. We file it, set the vent legally, and leave combustion or charge numbers on the ticket.
Tonnage is a calculation, not a habit
“One ton per 500 square feet” is how houses in Santa Fe end up with equipment that short-cycles. The glass, the adobe mass, the shading, the duct you already have, and 7,200 feet of thin air all move the number. We look at the house. We do not copy the tonnage of the unit that died, because the unit that died may have been wrong for twenty years. Oversized cooling dehumidifies poorly even in a dry climate and it wears contactors. Undersized heating is a cold bedroom in January. You get the reasoning with the price.
Duct first, equipment second
A new high-efficiency furnace or air handler on a crushed return will not deliver what the brochure says. We measure the duct we are attaching to. If the return is a single 12-inch in a 2,400-foot house, the install includes a return or we tell you the new equipment will be loud and weak. Changeouts that reuse a sound plenum and a sound line set are straightforward. Changeouts that reuse a rusted plenum full of water are not a same-price swap. We show you the plenum.
Gas venting and the condensing decision
An 80% furnace uses a metal flue. A 90%+ furnace makes condensate and wants PVC and a drain that will not freeze. In an old Santa Fe house the flue path and the drain path decide which furnace is honest. We do not punch a condensing vent through a historic street face to win an efficiency point. We do not leave an 80% furnace vented into a masonry chimney that is too large for the new flue gas. The vent is part of the install. It is not a line item we hope you decline.
Permits, startup, and the numbers we leave
Installs are permitted. Startup includes gas pressure where it applies, temperature rise or split, static pressure, and a CO check on combustion equipment. We leave those numbers. A crew that sets the thermostat to 75 and drives away did not finish. Refrigerant charge on a new system is weighed. It is not “felt.” If the line set is longer than the factory charge assumed, we add the difference from the install manual, not from memory.
What you live with afterward
Filter size, where the shutoff is, how to kill the system if the pan overflows, and what the first night of heat should feel like. We walk through that. Warranty registration is done. If a zone or a casita was excluded from the new system on purpose, we say it again so nobody is surprised in July. The shop number stays 505-316-4231. License 384927.
From the load conversation to the pad
We look at the house, the glass, the existing duct, and the fuel. You get a tonnage with a reason and a venting plan with a reason. The pad location is part of that conversation because a condenser under a portal roof with no airflow will run hot and loud. A furnace flue that has to stay in a masonry chimney gets a liner sized for the new appliance, or we do not use that chimney. Changeout day starts with protection on the floors and the old equipment leaving, not sitting in the driveway for you to deal with. Refrigerant from the old system is recovered. It is not vented.
Startup is not a thermostat click
Gas pressure where there is gas. Static pressure. Temperature rise on a furnace or split on a cooling coil. CO in the flue and a scan of the supply. Charge by weight, corrected for line length. Drain running, not dripping into the cabinet. Thermostat programmed to something a person will actually use, and a walkthrough of filter location. If a zone was left off the new system, we stand in that room and say it again. Permits get their inspection. We do not close a chase the inspector has to see.
The first week
A new system can trip a float switch if dust from the install hit the drain. Call us. That is a callback, not a new bill, when we just installed it. A room that is weak probably was weak in the design conversation. If we missed it, we come back and measure rather than argue. Warranty cards get registered so you are not doing paperwork in a closet. The number on the unit is 505-316-4231. License 384927.
Houses that should not get a full system
A casita that needs one room of cooling does not need a new ducted system for the main house tied into the same quote. We split those. A cooler that needs pads does not become an installation. If you called for an install and the honest job is a repair, we will say repair and price the repair. The larger sale can wait until it is the real one.
What is included when we say install
Removal and recovery of the old refrigerant, the new equipment, a line set or plenum work we specified, electrical disconnect, condensate, startup numbers, permit, and haul-away of the old unit. Duct repairs are included only when we wrote them in. A return that is too small is either in the job or called out as a limit on what the new equipment can do. Thermostat replacement is included when the old stat cannot run the new unit. Filter sizes are labeled. Gas venting or PVC venting is included for the furnace we sell, including a liner if the chimney requires one. What is not included: painting, drywall beyond the cuts we had to make, a new electrical panel if the existing one is full, and a crane if nobody told us the pad is on a roof with no stair. Those get named at the walk-through. Change orders happen when the plenum is rotten in a way we could not see. You see the rot before the price moves. We do not stack allowances and hope. Startup day ends with the system running, the numbers written, and you knowing how to kill it if the pan fills. Callbacks for a drain we installed are ours. Callbacks for a filter you never changed are a maintenance visit. 505-316-4231. License 384927.
Walk-through questions we will ask you
Which rooms are miserable, which rooms you never use, whether anyone sleeps in a casita, and whether you plan to close in a portal. Those answers change the tonnage and the duct more than the age of the current box. We ask about the electrical panel and about whether the street face is historic. We ask if the cooler is staying. We look at the flue. You do not need to know the answers in technical language. “The closet is full of boxes and the flue goes into the old chimney” is a complete answer. The bid comes after that look. A bid emailed from a model number alone is not ours.
What we actually get called for
Not a generic list — these are the failures this climate and housing stock produce.
20-year furnace, cracked exchanger
Replace. We will not send you into January on a cracked core.
AC that never matched the furnace
Coil and condenser have to be a pair. We will not “just hang a 3-ton.”
No ducts in the addition
That is a mini-split conversation, not more flex stuffed through adobe.
Panel at the limit
We flag it. An electrician may have to go first. Hiding that cost is how change-orders start.
How a job runs
In-home look
Not a phone quote for a whole system.
Written equipment list
Brand, size, vent, electrical, altitude kit.
Install and inspect
We meet the inspector when the permit requires it.
Questions people ask before they call
How long does an HVAC replacement take?
A straight furnace or AC swap is often one to two days. Duct revisions and dual-fuel take longer.
Do you offer financing?
Ask when we quote. We will not print rates here that change.
Will you reuse my old ducts?
If they are sized and not wet-rotted from a cooler, yes. Cooler ducts used as AC ducts are often undersized. We look before we promise.
City pages that stay
Installations stays on this URL. Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and Española each have one plumber page. Other towns 308 here or to those three. Call 505-316-4231.
Need installations?
Lobo Tech · NM license 384927 · 1259 Coriander Rd, Santa Fe · 505-316-4231