Commercial refrigeration answered 24/7 Qualicum Beach, BC
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A residential gas furnace in a basement, with PVC intake and exhaust and a supply plenum feeding ductwork

Heat pumps and refrigeration for Nanaimo, from Qualicum Beach

Refrigeration, gas work and heat pumps out of one shop, and a plain answer on the rebate question before anyone quotes a Nanaimo job.

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48 km from the shop in Qualicum Beach, south on Highway 19

What a Nanaimo address actually gets

A town of kitchens and gas mains, 48 km down the highway from a shop that covers both sides of the work.

We are not based here. Qualicum Beach is where the shop sits, and Nanaimo is a run down Highway 19, which is worth saying out loud on a page carrying this town's name. Red Seal certification travels with the van. A local address does not.

The thing that makes Nanaimo different from the towns further north is the gas main. Roughly 19,200 homes in this city are on the natural gas main, and that single fact decides more about a heat pump quote than the equipment does, because the provincial Home Renovation Rebate does not reach a gas-heated house. The table below sets out who gets what.

On the commercial side the same building usually holds all of it. The walk-in and the prep line underneath, the rooftop unit and the hood above, and a gas line running to the range in between. We carry refrigeration, HVAC, hoods and gas fitting, so a Nanaimo kitchen tends to deal with one shop rather than three.

Commercial refrigeration Gas fitting

Nanaimo on the public record

99,863
People counted in Nanaimo 2021 Census of Population.
About 19,200
Homes on the natural gas main FortisBC connections, provincial community energy inventory, 2022. The municipal figure is an allocation, so it is rounded.
1,714
Commercial gas connections Same inventory, commercial and small to medium industrial, 2022.

Which heat pump rebate reaches a Nanaimo address

Before anyone talks about equipment, the fuel already in the house has settled most of this.

How the house is heated now What it can claim
Electricity The provincial Home Renovation Rebate towards a heat pump, alongside whatever BC Hydro has running at the time.
Wood The same Home Renovation Rebate stream as an electrically heated house.
Natural gas, propane or oil Nothing provincial, unless the household qualifies on income. The larger fossil-fuel amounts on the rebate page belong to homes north of and including 100 Mile House.

Those three rows are the provincial position, taken from the Home Renovation Rebate programme page. Each needs the heat pump installed by a contractor registered with CleanBC Better Homes. Griffin Refrigeration is not registered, so none of them is available on a heat pump we install today. The regional district programme is separate and is covered on the blue band below.

Request a quote Which rebate fits your house

South of Nanaimo, to the end of the run

The run carries on down the highway to Duncan, and which regional district a town sits in decides the money.

Lantzville

District municipality

Regional District of Nanaimo

Named alongside the city in the regional rebate exclusion, so the same answer applies.

Ladysmith

Town

Cowichan Valley Regional District

A different regional district, which is the detail most often got wrong this far north.

Chemainus

Part of the Municipality of North Cowichan

Cowichan Valley Regional District

It has no council of its own, so anything municipal runs through North Cowichan.

Duncan

City

Cowichan Valley Regional District

The south end of the run, and a town whose gas load is more commercial than residential.

Heat pumps, furnace work and gas fitting for homes down the corridor, and refrigeration for the kitchens, grocery and walk-ins. Ask about a job this far south and we will tell you plainly what we can cover and when it can be booked.

Nanaimo refrigeration, and the gas-fired equipment above it

Three things about this town that are on the public record, and what each one means for the work.

  1. 01

    One hundred and sixty licensed rooms in one town

    The province lists 198 active liquor licences under Nanaimo. Take out the retail stores, the manufacturers, the clubs and the U-brews and about 160 are rooms serving food or drink, 109 of them Food Primary and 51 Liquor Primary. Each one runs cold storage that has to hold and air handling that has to keep the room workable. Booking the cooler, the rooftop unit and the hood as three separate trades is how a week disappears into scheduling. We carry all three.

    B.C. liquor establishment list
  2. 02

    Seventeen hundred commercial gas connections

    The provincial community energy inventory counts 1,714 commercial natural gas connections in Nanaimo. That is the range, the fryer, the make-up air and a good share of the rooftop equipment, all on a line somebody has to be ticketed to touch. Gas fitting and kitchen hood work sit with us alongside the refrigeration, so the hot side and the cold side of a kitchen answer to one number.

    Province of B.C., community energy and emissions inventory
  3. 03

    The regional rebate stops outside the city

    There is a $2,000 regional rebate for moving a house off fossil heat, run by the Regional District of Nanaimo. Its eligibility list names homeowners in Nanaimo and Lantzville among those who do not qualify, because the programme is written for addresses in the district electoral areas. Ladysmith, Chemainus and Duncan sit in a different regional district again, the Cowichan Valley, so it never covered them either. Every address on this page gets the same answer, and gets it before the quote.

    Regional District of Nanaimo, Fossil Fuel to Heat Pump Rebate

HVAC and refrigeration we take on in Nanaimo

The refrigeration side first, then the heating and cooling, then the gas that feeds it.

Commercial kitchen hoods
24/7 refrigeration repair The line that gets answered when a cooler quits outside shop hours. Details Walk-in coolers and freezers Compressors, condensers, defrost and door gear, plus leak checks. Details Ice machines Cleaning, water treatment and repair for bars, kitchens and hotels. Details Restaurant and food service Prep tables, line coolers and cold holding that has to pass inspection. Details Commercial HVAC Rooftop units, heating and cooling for commercial buildings, plus kitchen exhaust and the make-up air behind it. Details Heat pumps and home heating Ducted and ductless systems sized for an island winter. Details Gas fitting Gas lines, appliance connections and the permit that goes with them, for homes and commercial kitchens. Details

Furnace work belongs on this list too, and a city with this many gas homes has plenty of it. What furnace repair covers.

Refrigeration down in a Nanaimo kitchen?
Ring the commercial refrigeration line whatever the hour and a person answers it. What you get on that call is the honest position on the day and the drive, plus the first thing to check on the equipment while you are still standing next to it.
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Questions from Nanaimo and the corridor

Are you a Nanaimo company?
No. We work out of Qualicum Beach, about 48 km down Highway 19, and Nanaimo is one of the towns on the run. Ask on the phone and we will be straight about how a Nanaimo job gets arranged. What the address does not change is the certification behind the work, which is the same in Nanaimo as it is at home.
Does the Regional District of Nanaimo rebate apply to my house?
No, not inside the city. That one belongs to the regional district, worth $2,000 for moving a house off natural gas, oil or propane, and its eligibility list names homeowners in Nanaimo and Lantzville among those who do not qualify. It is written for addresses in the district electoral areas. An address in Ladysmith, Chemainus or Duncan sits in the Cowichan Valley Regional District instead, so the programme was never theirs to claim. Better to hear that here than at the application.
Our house is heated with natural gas. What can we claim on a heat pump?
Nothing provincial unless the household qualifies on income, and that is worth knowing early. The Home Renovation Rebate sits behind an electric or wood-heated house, and homes burning gas, propane or oil are left with the income-qualified programme alone, which runs on its own contractor registration. Converting a gas house can still make sense on the cooling and on what it costs to run, and we quote it with no rebate in the number.
Is it worth repairing the furnace we already have?
Often it is, and with this many gas homes in town it is a fair question to ask first. Ask for the readings before anyone recommends a replacement: the gas pressure, the temperature rise across the exchanger and whatever the board is reporting. If those say the unit has years left, we will say so. If they say you are about to put good money into a bad furnace, we will say that instead and leave the decision with you.
Do you do the gas side as well as the refrigeration?
Yes. Gas fitting is part of what we do, for houses and for commercial kitchens, and it sits beside the kitchen hood and the make-up air behind it. In a restaurant that matters more than it sounds. The range, the exhaust and the cold side share one room, and a fault in one of them has a habit of showing up first in another.

Still working out the number? Our note on heat pump costs on Vancouver Island walks through it.

Book work in Nanaimo

Quotes, installs and maintenance down the corridor start on the form. We reply within 24 hours. If something has already failed, the phone is faster.

Request a quote Call 250-797-2829