Quartz Hill homes, by the numbers
Quartz Hill is an unincorporated community of about 11,500 people in some 3,800 homes, by the Census Bureau’s latest five-year survey (Census Reporter). Its housing is older than its neighbors’: the typical home was built around 1976, and about six in ten went up before 1980, against about one in three in Lancaster. About 13 percent are mobile or manufactured homes, and about 84 percent of homes heat with utility gas.
In a house that age the equipment has likely been replaced more than once, but the ducts are often the originals, and rooms added over the years may sit past the end of the duct run. ENERGY STAR estimates a typical duct system loses 20 to 30 percent of its air to leaks and poor connections, which is why a duct check belongs in any Quartz Hill replacement, and why ductless is often the answer for added rooms.
Manufactured homes
With more than one in eight Quartz Hill homes a mobile or manufactured home, it is worth knowing they have their own heating and cooling needs. They often have a furnace made for manufactured housing, ducts that run under the floor, and little room outside for equipment.
A ductless mini-split is one way to heat and cool a manufactured home room by room without working under the floor: an outdoor unit on a pad or bracket, and an indoor unit high on the wall of each room that needs it. We look at the home, the existing system and the space outside at a free consultation. See ductless mini-split installation.
Replacing a system in an older home
A replacement in a 1970s house is more than a new box outside. If the old system runs on R-22, the EPA notes no new R-22 has been made or imported since January 1, 2020, so the indoor coil and the outdoor unit are replaced as a matched pair rather than recharged. The ducts get checked for leaks, crushed runs and rooms they never reached.
California also requires independent testing of the finished job. CHEERS, which registers that testing, says a permit and independent testing are required when changing a home’s heating and cooling, and the test is often the first time anyone has measured how much air an old Quartz Hill duct system loses. A free in-home consultation is where all of that gets looked at before any work begins.
Permits in Quartz Hill
Quartz Hill is unincorporated Los Angeles County, so permits for a new air conditioner, heat pump, furnace or mini-split come from LA County Public Works, filed through EPIC-LA, not from a city. The contractor doing the work pulls the permit.
Our guide to HVAC permits in the Antelope Valley explains the inspection and the independent testing that follows.
