A system is not finished when it is switched on
ForgeLine works on heating, cooling and ventilation across Temecula and the valleys around it. The difference between two identical machines in two identical houses is almost always what happened on the last afternoon of the job — and on a great many jobs, nothing did.
Commissioning
Five points in a job crossed with four kinds of system. What should actually be measured on the day a system is handed over, the document you should receive, and what to do if you never got one.
The same box, two different systems
Two houses on the same street, the same equipment, the same installer. One is quiet, holds temperature and costs what it should. The other is noisy, never quite gets there and fails early. The machine did not differ. The charge, the airflow and the controls did.
Those three things are set on the last day, they take about two hours to do properly, and they are the first thing dropped when a job runs late.
What you should have been given
A sheet with numbers on it. Superheat and subcooling. Static pressure. Delivered airflow. Temperature split. Gas pressure and combustion figures where there is gas. Model and serial numbers. If you do not have that, the honest position is that nobody knows whether your system is right — including the people who installed it.
Six things
Commissioning
On our own installations as standard, and on somebody else’s as a separate job if you want to know what you have.
Repair
No cooling and no heat, checked in order of cost, with the reading that proves the answer shown to you rather than described.
Annual service
The same measurements as commissioning, taken again, so this year can be compared with last year rather than described as fine.
Duct testing
Leakage and static pressure measured. In this valley the duct is in an attic that gets extremely hot, and the attic usually explains the complaint.
Replacement
Sized from the house, permitted, tested and commissioned — with the commissioning written into the quote as a line item rather than assumed.
Premises
Rooftop packaged units, split systems, extract and make-up air, and planned maintenance twice a year for retail, offices, clinics and light industrial.
Houses
Mostly newer than the rest of this county — master-planned, two-storey, attic ducts, and a genuinely hot inland summer. A large share of the houses here were commissioned by a builder’s subcontractor on a schedule, which is exactly the situation this site is about.
Premises
Retail, offices, clinics, tasting rooms and light industrial along Jefferson and out past the freeway. A written record per unit, maintenance twice a year, and readings that exist rather than opinions that do not.
Five things this website does not print
| Prices | Commissioning, duct work and equipment are three different jobs with three different answers. A figure here would be a guess. |
| A response time | We do not publish one. In the first 110-degree week of the year nobody in this valley can hold to a printed figure. We will tell you where you are in the queue. |
| Savings percentages | A correctly commissioned system performs better than a badly commissioned one. By how much depends on how badly, which is not a number we can print. |
| Reviews and ratings | There are none on this site. When there are real ones they will be somewhere you can check them. |
Asked most often
What is commissioning, and why have I not heard of it?
It is the setting-up that happens after a system is physically installed: the refrigerant charge adjusted to the manufacturer’s figures for that equipment in that house, the airflow measured and adjusted, the controls configured for how the building is actually used, and every one of those verified with an instrument. It takes about two hours on a house. You have not heard of it because it is the last thing on the last day and it is invisible — nobody can see whether it happened.
How do I know whether my system was commissioned?
Ask for the numbers. A system that was commissioned has a sheet with figures on it: superheat and subcooling, static pressure, delivered airflow, temperature split, and combustion figures where there is gas. One that was not has an invoice. It is a reasonable request, it takes a competent contractor a couple of minutes, and the reply tells you what you need to know either way.
The house cools fine. Does any of this matter?
A system that is wrong in either direction still cools a house in its first summer. That is exactly why this is worth checking rather than judging by feel. An overcharged system floods the coil and sends liquid back toward the compressor; an undercharged one runs hot. Neither announces itself. The bill arrives annually and the failure arrives years later looking like bad luck.
We have a mini-split that was low on refrigerant after two years. Why?
Almost always because of how it was made rather than because something damaged it. A ductless system arrives with a factory charge for a stated line-set length, and anything longer needs refrigerant added by weight to a published figure. The line set has to be evacuated to a deep vacuum first, verified with a micron gauge, and the flare joints made to a torque figure. A joint made by feel holds for a while and then weeps.
Can commissioning fix a system that is the wrong size?
No, and we would rather say so. Sizing and ductwork are decided before the equipment is chosen, and a correctly commissioned oversized system is still oversized. The right order is a load calculation, then an assessment of the ductwork, then equipment selection, then commissioning. A contractor who starts at the fourth step is starting in the middle.
Which areas do you cover?
Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Wildomar, Winchester, Fallbrook, Lake Elsinore and Hemet.
Wolf Store Road, Temecula
32824 Wolf Store Rd, Temecula, CA 92592. We cover Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Wildomar, Winchester, Fallbrook, Lake Elsinore and Hemet.
Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm. (951) 499-1410