Winona sits at the east end of the City of Hamilton, between Stoney Creek and Grimsby, on the narrow strip of land between Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment. Winona also has two very different kinds of home now: the older village and farm properties, and the new streets going up on former fruit land. Good HVAC in Winona starts with knowing which of the two you live in. Environmental Heating & Cooling is a family-owned company based in Smithville since 2014, rated 5.0 on Google, and about 22 minutes from Winona.
The Lake and the Escarpment Set Winona’s Weather
The geography that made Winona peach country also affects your furnace and air conditioner. The Greenbelt Foundation explains how it works in the Niagara fruit belt, which runs along the same strip: breezes moving between the lake and the Escarpment moderate the seasons. In fall, the lake is still warm and keeps cold air from settling. In spring, the lake is still cold and holds back early warming. Cool air also drains down off the Escarpment towards the lake, which the City of Hamilton recorded when a local fruit grower worried new buildings would block it. That climate is why tender fruit grows here, and why the Winona Peach Festival started here in 1967.
For a house, the lake cuts both ways. Winter nights are often a little milder here than up on the Escarpment, which helps a heat pump keep up. Summers near the lake are humid, and humidity is what makes a room feel sticky even when the thermostat says it is cool.
An oversized air conditioner makes that worse. It cools the air quickly, reaches the set temperature and shuts off before it has pulled much water out of the air. A correctly sized unit runs longer cycles and dries the house as it cools it. In Winona we size air conditioning with the humidity in mind, and sometimes a dehumidifier is the better fix.
New Streets on Former Fruit Land
Much of Winona’s growth comes from the City of Hamilton’s Fruitland-Winona Secondary Plan. It brings part of a rural area with tender fruit farms into the city, and the City expects about 15,000 new residents once it is built out.
These new houses are built tight. Good insulation and sealed walls keep heating bills down, but they also keep moisture and cooking smells inside. In a tight house, the common complaints are about air rather than heat: condensation running down the windows in January, dry air and static in February, and smells that stay long after dinner.
More heat does not fix any of those. A tight house needs fresh air brought in and stale air sent out, and a heat recovery ventilator does that while keeping most of the heat. A new, well-insulated house is also a strong candidate for a cold-climate heat pump, because the heat pump has less heat loss to keep up with.
Older Homes and Rural Properties Along Highway 8
Away from the new streets, Winona still has its original village, farmhouses and larger lots. The City describes Highway 8 through the area as lined with mature trees, open fields and orchards.
These properties bring a different list of jobs. A detached workshop or barn may need its own heat, or a new gas line run out from the house. Gas piping on an older property has often been extended by several different people over the years, and the current owner may not know who did the work.
If you have bought an older property in Winona and nobody can tell you the history of its gas piping, start with a gas safety inspection. Our owner, Mike Peddle, holds TSSA Gas Technician and TSSA Heating Contractor certification.
How We Get to Winona From Smithville
Winona is about 21 kilometres and 22 minutes from our Smithville base, down the Escarpment and west along Regional Road 8.
We cover all of Winona, from the new streets near Fifty Road to the lakeshore by Fifty Point Conservation Area and the older homes along Highway 8. We also serve neighbouring Stoney Creek and Grimsby.
What We Do for Winona Homes
- Heating: furnace repair and replacement, and maintenance before the first cold snap.
- Air conditioning: repair and installation, sized for lake humidity as well as floor area.
- Heat pumps: cold-climate models for tight new builds, and dual-fuel set-ups that keep a gas furnace for the coldest nights.
- Indoor air quality: ventilation, humidifiers, dehumidifiers and filtration, the usual fixes in a new Winona home.
- Water heaters: tank, tankless and heat pump models, sized to the household. We do not offer water heater rentals.
- Gas services: new gas lines to workshops and outbuildings, leak detection and safety inspections.
We have claimed more than one million dollars in rebates for our customers and converted 174 homes to greener systems. Programmes change often, so ask us what applies to your house before you replace anything.
Questions From Winona Homeowners
My Winona house still has the furnace the builder installed. Should I replace it with another furnace or a heat pump? In many newer Fruitland-Winona homes, a cold-climate heat pump is the stronger choice. A tight, well-insulated house loses heat slowly, so the heat pump can carry most of the winter. If the house or the ductwork is not ready for that, a dual-fuel set-up keeps a gas furnace for the coldest nights. We look at the house before we recommend either one, because the cheapest like-for-like swap is rarely the best fit.
Why do the windows in my new Winona house run with water in winter? Warm, humid indoor air is meeting cold glass, and a tight house gives that moisture nowhere to go. Better ventilation and humidity control usually stop it without adding heat.
Can you run a gas line to a workshop or barn on an older Winona property? Yes, we install gas lines to detached buildings. On an older property we recommend a gas safety inspection first, because earlier piping often has no record of who installed it.
What should I do if I smell gas? Leave the house and call Enbridge Gas on 1-866-763-5427, or 911, from outside. Once the utility has made the property safe, call us to find and repair the leak.
To book a visit in Winona, call the office or request service online. You can see every town we cover on our areas we serve page.
