King County Heating & Cooling Services

The King County climate record

One record, one county: the normals at RENTON MUNI AP, WA US — 4,390 heating degree days, 258 cooling degree days, 34.69 inches of precipitation, an average temperature of 53.6 degrees — applied to King County's own 2,116 square miles and its 86 ZIP codes. The figures are the Seattle metro's; the ground they are applied to, lying close to the centre of the Seattle metro, is this county's alone, and this section reads the two together.

There is a housing arithmetic under King County's heating season. The metro it belongs to built its largest share of homes since 2000 — 28.5% of the stock — with the next share between 1980 and 1999 at 27.8%, around a median build year of 1985. Fitted into those eras, the county's furnaces and heat pumps meet 30.4 freezing nights at very different ages, and the heating diary divides accordingly: deep repair conversations in the older bands, first-replacement conversations in the newer ones.

Distance is the county fact the climate table leaves out. King County's centroid lies close to the centre of the Seattle metro, roughly 5 miles from the centre it is measured against, and that distance is travelled on every call routed here — out through the metro's nearer counties and into this one's 86 ZIP codes. Local knowledge in a county like this is partly a map held in the head: which roads, which communities, which end of the county a call is coming from.

Routing in King County is written in five digits. The county's codes begin at 98001 and run to 98288, 86 in total, and between the first and the last sits the county's full spread of ground — 2,116 square miles from the metro-facing edge to the far side. A technician's week here is a tour of those codes, and the tour is also a tour of the county's building history, because each code's systems were largely fitted when that code's streets were built.

Neighbouring counties are the honest context for King County's figures. Its 2,116 square miles sit inside a wider spread of county ground — Pierce County, Snohomish County are among the 2 neighbours on its record — and its position close to the centre of the Seattle metro places it on its own side of that spread. A system near the county's edge may be closer to a neighbouring county's centre than to its own; the pages are organised by county because the data is, and the links between them carry the rest of the picture.

There is a geography to King County's seasons that the totals flatten. The county lies close to the centre of the Seattle metro, roughly 5 miles from the centre the record is measured against, and its 2,116 square miles do not meet a hot week or a cold snap in one voice: the ground nearer the metro and the ground at the county's far edge live the same 3.9 hot days and 30.4 freezing nights through different housing, fitted in different decades. One station record, one county, two ends of every season.

Communities and housing in King County

Communities across King County include Seattle, Bellevue, Kent and Renton — 9 listed places in all, spread over the county's 2,116 square miles in Washington. Each community's housing was built in its own decades, so the heating and cooling diary reads differently from one name on that list to the next: older systems and original ductwork in the long-settled places, matched fleets ageing together in the subdivisions, and additions and conversions in the communities still growing at the county's edges.

Spread the metro's eras over King County's own ground and the housing paragraph becomes a map: 2,116 square miles, 86 ZIP codes at 24.6 square miles per code, and a stock whose largest band was built since 2000 (28.5%), whose pre-1980 share runs to 43.7% and whose post-2000 share runs to 28.5%. The percentages are the metro's; the streets they land on are this county's, and a technician driving from one end of the county to the other drives through the bands in sequence.

A reader who only had King County's identifying figures would already know its shape: a county of 2,116 square miles in Washington, 86 ZIP codes, 9 communities on the record, sitting close to the centre of the Seattle metro. What the figures cannot say alone is how the ground feels to work — the drives between calls, the mix of decades in the housing, the season that runs taller — and that is what the rest of this page is for, section by section.

Our role in King County, stated plainly

TempReach USA is not an HVAC company. We employ no heating or cooling technicians, we run no service trucks, and we do not carry out HVAC work of any kind. This website and its call center exist for one purpose: to connect homeowners with independent local heating and cooling professionals who serve their area. When you call the number on this site, your call is routed to such a professional. From that point, everything about the job belongs to that professional and to you: the assessment, the work itself, the scheduling, what you are charged, and the terms of any agreement you reach. The professional who takes your job is solely responsible for it. The technician who arrives at your home runs their own business; they are not an employee, agent or subcontractor of TempReach USA. Our part is the information on these pages — assembled from Census Bureau housing data and NOAA climate records for each metro — and the routing of your call. We state this plainly on purpose: you should know exactly who you are hiring before anyone picks up a wrench or a gauge.