Cardinal Heating & Air

Cardinal Heating & Air Since 1991, Cardinal Heating and Air has proudly served our neighbors in Seattle and the greater Eastside with quality HVAC equipment and service.

Since 1992, Cardinal Heating and AC has proudly served our neighbors in Seattle and the greater Eastside, including Redmond, Issaquah, Kirkland, Bellevue, Woodinville, Mercer Island, and Bothell. We offer complete Installation, Maintenance, Repair and Service of: A/C Systems, Boilers, Gas Furnaces, Radiant Floors, Geothermal Systems, Heat Pumps, and solar heating system. Cardinal Heating and A/C,

Inc installs and services several product lines so that each customer gets the "just right" system for them. Cardinal backs all of it's products and have selected those that are the best for homeowners solutions in the Northwest.

Set the thermostat to 78 degrees and the same number means six different things.78 in the living room at 3 p.m. with aft...
06/17/2026

Set the thermostat to 78 degrees and the same number means six different things.
78 in the living room at 3 p.m. with afternoon sun pouring in feels like 84.
78 in the upstairs primary bedroom at 9 p.m. after a hot day feels like 82.
78 in the basement guest room feels like 73.
78 to a child running around feels like 80. 78 to a grandparent reading on the couch feels like 76.
The thermostat does not know any of this. It reads one spot, three feet off the floor, in one specific room.
The fix is not setting the thermostat lower. The fix is giving the system more information to work with — multiple zones, smart sensors in the rooms that matter, and ductwork that actually delivers air where you spend your time.

Most HVAC companies size your new system by square footage. Your home is 2,400 square feet, so they recommend a 4-ton AC...
06/15/2026

Most HVAC companies size your new system by square footage. Your home is 2,400 square feet, so they recommend a 4-ton AC.
That math is wrong about half the time.
A 2,400-square-foot home built in 1992 with single-pane windows facing west needs almost twice the cooling capacity of a 2,400-square-foot home built in 2018 with triple-pane windows facing east. Same square footage. Completely different system.
The real calculation is called a Manual J load calculation. It looks at: window size, window orientation, window glazing, insulation levels, ceiling height, ductwork condition, sun exposure, local climate data, how many people live in the home, and how heat-producing appliances are clustered.
The result is a number in BTUs that says exactly what your home needs. Not what a similar home needs. What your home needs.
Oversized systems short-cycle, run inefficiently, and fail early. Undersized systems run constantly and never get the house comfortable. The right-sized system, calculated correctly, runs less, costs less, and lasts longer.
If your last HVAC quote was based on square footage alone, you got a guess. Not a calculation.

Counter-intuitive, but true.June is the month ACs fail. July is the month homeowners actually decide to replace one.By J...
06/13/2026

Counter-intuitive, but true.
June is the month ACs fail. July is the month homeowners actually decide to replace one.
By July, the panic of a hot house is gone. The financing is figured out. The rebates are researched. The right system for the home is chosen on its merits not on whoever could come out same-day on the hottest Saturday of the year.
The homeowners who get the best AC install are not the ones who needed it most. They are the ones who planned it earliest.

Your AC runs about 90 days a year on the Eastside. June, July, and a stretch of August.That is it. Out of 365 days, your...
06/13/2026

Your AC runs about 90 days a year on the Eastside. June, July, and a stretch of August.
That is it. Out of 365 days, your cooling system has 90 to prove itself. Then it sits for another 275 waiting for next year.
Which is why the homeowners who stay comfortable in summer treat May the way the rest treat December. As the month you prepare for the season that actually matters.

If your home runs an electric furnace, June is the month to think about it.Electric furnaces are the most expensive way ...
06/05/2026

If your home runs an electric furnace, June is the month to think about it.
Electric furnaces are the most expensive way to heat a home on the Eastside. They turn one unit of electricity into one unit of heat; no more, no less. A heat pump turns one unit of electricity into three or four units of heat. The math is not close.
Most Eastside electric furnaces sit in homes built before 1990, townhouses, older single-family homes, and condos. Many of them have run for 25 or 30 years without anyone questioning the bill.
June is when the questioning starts to pay off.
Off-season replacement timing. PSE rebates that stack with federal credits. A heat pump that heats in winter and cools in summer, replacing your furnace and adding AC in one project.
If your PSE bills climb every January and you have always assumed that is just what winter costs, it does not have to be.

Your thermostat is lying to you. Or at least, it is only telling you about one room.The temperature on your wall reading...
06/03/2026

Your thermostat is lying to you. Or at least, it is only telling you about one room.
The temperature on your wall reading reflects the air about three feet off the floor, in one specific spot, near the sensor. Meanwhile your upstairs bedroom is 8 degrees warmer, your kitchen during dinner prep is 6 degrees warmer, and the south-facing room with afternoon sun is its own climate zone entirely.
A single thermostat in a single room cannot manage a multi-room home with any precision. That is not your AC failing. That is the limit of single-zone design.
Zoning, smart sensors, and properly balanced ductwork are the actual fixes. If you have lived with hot rooms for years thinking your AC was the problem, the AC may not be the problem at all.

June 1.The thermostat changes color today. The window units come out of storage. The first hot week is somewhere in the ...
06/01/2026

June 1.
The thermostat changes color today. The window units come out of storage. The first hot week is somewhere in the next 30 days. For 34 years, Cardinal has watched Eastside homes do this exact dance every spring. The houses that hold their cool are the ones whose owners did something in April or May. The houses that struggle are the ones still hoping last summer was a fluke.
Whatever you find yourself doing this month; changing a filter, asking us a question, scheduling a tune-up, or just running the AC for the first time, we are glad to be in the neighborhood for it.

The best time to replace a gas furnace is when you don't need one.Most homeowners think about their furnace in January. ...
05/29/2026

The best time to replace a gas furnace is when you don't need one.
Most homeowners think about their furnace in January. We think about it in May.
Here is why: when your furnace fails on a 28-degree night, you have no time to compare brands, weigh efficiency ratings, or sequence the install around your schedule. You buy whatever is in stock and whoever can come the soonest.
A spring or summer replacement is a different conversation. You choose the right system for your home. You qualify for off-season rebates. You install on your timeline, not the weather's.
If your gas furnace is 15 years old, made it through last winter on borrowed time, or is starting to short-cycle, the smart move is to handle it now. While the calendar is calm. Before the cold makes the decision for you.

One question we get more than any other: "Don't heat pumps just heat?"No. A heat pump is one unit that does both.In wint...
05/27/2026

One question we get more than any other: "Don't heat pumps just heat?"
No. A heat pump is one unit that does both.
In winter it pulls heat from the outside air and brings it inside — even when it is in the 30s outside, there is still heat to extract.
In summer it reverses. Same unit, same refrigerant lines, now pulling heat from inside your home and pushing it out. That is your AC.
One system. Two seasons. No separate furnace. No separate AC. And because heat pumps are the most efficient way to do either job, your energy bills drop in both directions.
For Eastside homes where winters are mild and summers are short but real, a heat pump is the system the climate was made for.

We remember the men and women who gave everything so the rest of us could come home to ours.From all of us at Cardinal -...
05/26/2026

We remember the men and women who gave everything so the rest of us could come home to ours.
From all of us at Cardinal -Thank you.

Address

13649 NE 126th Place , Suite 101
Kirkland, WA
98034

Telephone

+14258279997

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