How does this site compare heating and cooling options?

What is this site?

Choosing Heat & Air in Washington is a set of decision pages about heating and cooling Washington State houses. Each one takes a real choice, such as ductless or baseboard, and works through who each option tends to suit. West side and East side, of the Cascades, are the organizing words, because the climates ask different things. Begin at the start page if you are new.

How are options compared?

By system type and by situation, with the same parts on each page.

• Verdict rows. "If your house is like this, this option tends to fit, and here is why."
• A side-by-side table. Sourced facts in short cells, with no scores.
• What would change the answer. The specific things that flip the choice.
• Costs with dates. Rebates and running costs, with the date they were checked.

The running-cost table is our own arithmetic, labelled as such, on published price and efficiency figures. Where a source gives no figure, the page says so. We found no official installed-price figure for any system, so none is printed.

What doesn't this site do?

It doesn't test equipment, score products or rank brands, and it won't tell you one maker is ahead of another. It installs and repairs nothing, and it has no technicians to send. It has no reviews or customer stories. Refrigerant, gas, flue, oil-tank and electrical work belongs to licensed people, so check any contractor on L&I's verify tool.

Nothing here replaces advice from your utility, your local building office or a licensed contractor. In an emergency, follow the safety lines on the relevant page and call 911.

How were sources checked?

Sources were checked on November 3, 2026, and rebates and prices are stated as of November 2026. Some official sites could not be read from where this was checked, so these came from labelled copies at the Internet Archive:

• Puget Sound Energy rebates and gas safety pages, with captures from April to October 2026, for example its heating rebates (archived copy, July 2026).
• Avista rebates, tariffs and gas safety, for example its rebates page (archived copy, June 2026).
• Washington's Pollution Liability Insurance Agency, for example its home page (archived copy, October 2026). Some amounts come from 2025 captures.
• Cascade Natural Gas emergency information (archived copy, December 2025).
• Puget Sound Clean Air legal overview (archived copy, March 2025).

The Initiative 2066 ruling comes from the court's opinion (news-site copy), not checked against the court's own copy. Spokane's city permit pages could not be opened, so Spokane permit rules are marked unconfirmed. Any figure from an archived copy may have changed, so confirm with the utility or agency before relying on it.

Where do the pictures come from?

Photographs come from public sources such as Wikimedia Commons, under licenses their owners chose. Some equipment photos were taken outside Washington. Where no real photo fit, a picture was made by AI, and its caption begins "AI-generated picture:".

Who runs this site?

The people who run it also own four other businesses, named below.