Centennial, CO 80016 · Family-owned since 2004
Chapparal is 256 custom homes on one to two-acre lots in far southeast Centennial — 1982 to 1995, averaging around 4,500 square feet, every one with a basement and most with walkout space. These are the largest homes we service in the city, and they were built one at a time by different builders, which means no two mechanical rooms are alike.
Custom construction means no template. Unlike a production subdivision where we know the duct layout before we walk in, every Chapparal house was designed independently. We look before we quote, always.
At 4,000 to 6,000 finished square feet with walkout basements, single-system homes here are almost always uncomfortable somewhere. Multi-zone or dual-system is the realistic starting point, not the upgrade.
Walkout basements are their own thermal zone — one wall fully exposed and glazed, three below grade. On a single thermostat shared with the main level, they never track together.
Lots are one to two acres and not horse-zoned, which distinguishes Chapparal from the adjacent Antelope section on two-plus acres with wells and septic.
This is not generic copy. Below is what is actually documented in Chapparal home listings and public records — the equipment people have installed, replaced and worked around in these specific houses.
A gas furnace does not deliver its nameplate rating in Centennial. Standard practice, following NFPA 54, is to derate input by 4% for every 1,000 feet above 2,000 feet. At roughly 5,800 feet that is about a 15% reduction in input BTU before you have burned a single therm. Ron Thingvold at Comfort Air Distributing — a supply house right here in Centennial — puts it plainly: one of the most common errors they see is elevation derate being done incorrectly or not at all, which results in poor comfort at design conditions.
For a home the size of a typical Chapparal house, here is what that looks like on a 140,000 BTU nameplate furnace:
| At sea level | In Centennial at ~5,800 ft |
|---|---|
| 140,000 BTU/hr input (nameplate) | about 118,700 BTU/hr input after a 15.2% derate |
| Output at 80% AFUE | about 95,000 BTU/hr |
| Output at 96% AFUE | about 114,000 BTU/hr |
Centennial’s 99% winter design temperature is 4°F and the 1% summer design temperature is 90°F, per ACCA Manual J Table 1A for Denver/Centennial Airport. We run 6,059 heating degree days and 769 cooling degree days a year against a 65°F base, and our daily temperature range is classified high — over a 25-degree swing. That combination is why a system sized off a rule of thumb misses here and a system sized off an actual Manual J calculation does not.
The kit myth. You will hear that every furnace in Colorado needs a high-altitude conversion kit. That is not true at 5,800 feet. Many modern condensing furnaces are factory-certified to 7,000 feet or higher with no orifice or pressure-switch change — Goodman, for example, is installable to 7,000 ft in the U.S. without modification. What always applies is the input derate for sizing. Venting is the other one people miss: a 2-inch PVC vent good for 50 feet and four elbows at sea level often has to be upsized to 3 inches at Front Range altitude.
Nobody plans a furnace failure. In Centennial they happen on the first hard cold snap in October and during the January stretch when we sit below 10°F for days — the same week every furnace in the neighborhood is running at maximum, which is exactly when the weak ones quit. Air conditioners fail in the first 90°F stretch of July, for the same reason.
We are based at 14883 E Hinsdale Ave, Unit H in Centennial, CO 80112 — not a call center in another state. When you call (303) 627-3395 you reach us. Chapparal is a short drive, and same-day service is typical for no-heat and no-cool calls.
Carbon monoxide is the one that matters. Older furnaces and orphaned water heaters sharing a masonry chimney are the two most common CO risks we find in Centennial homes. If your CO alarm sounds, get everyone outside and call 911 first. If you do not have a CO alarm on every level of the house, that is the cheapest safety upgrade you will ever buy. Arapahoe County is also an EPA Radon Zone 1 county — nearly half of home radon tests here come back above the 4.0 pCi/L action level, and the county offers free test kits.
| Service | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Furnace repair | $150 – $1,200+ |
| Furnace replacement | $3,500 – $8,500 installed |
| AC repair | $150 – $900+ |
| AC installation | $3,800 – $10,000 installed |
| Furnace tune-up | $89 – $149 |
| AC tune-up | $79 – $129 |
| Duct cleaning | $299 – $599 |
The City of Centennial requires a permit for HVAC replacement. The city lists “Air Conditioner (AC)/Furnace/Water Heater — the replacement of existing HVAC units or water heaters like for like” as a one-stop permit, and it requires that any contractor or subcontractor doing the work be licensed in the City of Centennial. Permits are issued by the City of Centennial Building Division at the Civic Center, 13133 E Arapahoe Rd, and filed online through the city portal. Centennial has adopted the 2021 I-Codes — IBC, IRC, IMC, IFGC and IPC. We are licensed here and we pull the permit as part of the job.
Local design criteria worth knowing: Centennial requires a 30 psf non-reducible roof snow load, a 115 mph wind speed and a 0.30 U-factor on residential windows. That last one matters more than people think — window performance is a direct input to the load calculation that sizes your equipment.
Read this before anyone quotes you a rebate. Three things changed for 2026 and a lot of HVAC websites have not caught up. The federal 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit expired for equipment placed in service after December 31, 2025 — there is no federal 25C credit on a 2026 installation. Xcel Energy removed gas furnace and boiler rebates effective January 1, 2026. And there is no standalone Xcel rebate for central air conditioning — the “$400 AC rebate” you may see quoted online is stale.
Here is what is real right now:
| Incentive | 2026 amount |
|---|---|
| Xcel — air-source heat pump | Up to $900 per cooling ton when replacing a fuel-burning system ($300/ton otherwise) |
| Xcel — cold-climate heat pump | Up to $2,250 per heating ton at 5°F when replacing a fuel-burning system ($750/ton otherwise) |
| Xcel — ground-source heat pump | Up to $3,300 per heating ton |
| Xcel — heat pump water heater | Up to $2,250 |
| Xcel — evaporative cooler | $300 standard / $675 premium / $1,200 multi-ducted premium |
| Xcel — smart thermostat | $50, or $100 bill credit plus $25/yr with AC Rewards enrollment |
| Xcel — attic insulation / air sealing | Up to $500 / up to $400, with a 1.5× multiplier if you heat with gas |
| Colorado Heat Pump Tax Credit | $1,000 air-source, $2,000 ground-source, $250 heat pump water heater — passed through to you as a line-item discount of at least $333, $667 and $83 respectively |
| Federal 25C credit | Expired. Not available for 2026 installations. |
| Xcel gas furnace / boiler rebate | Removed effective January 1, 2026. |
The Colorado credit is claimed by the contractor, not by you — it has to be a contractor registered with the Colorado Energy Office, and at least 33% of it must appear on your invoice as a line item labeled “State of Colorado Heat Pump Discount.” You file nothing. Xcel rebates are first-come, first-served and funding-limited, and they require Xcel service — which is why the Xcel-versus-CORE question above matters on the east side of Centennial.
Boundaries: Far southeast Centennial near Arapahoe Rd, Parker Rd and E-470. Landmarks and anchors nearby: The Chapparal Metropolitan Rec Center, Saddle Rock Golf Course about three miles out, the Piney Creek Trail, Piney Creek Hollow, Creekside Park at the Farm, 17 Mile House Farm Park, Parker Jordan Centennial Open Space, Saddle Rock Village and Southlands, with direct E-470 access.
Streets we work in Chapparal include:
We also serve every other Centennial ZIP — 80015, 80016, 80111, 80112, 80121 and 80122 — plus Aurora, Parker, Englewood, Lone Tree, Littleton, Greenwood Village and Highlands Ranch. See our main Centennial HVAC page for citywide service.
By looking at it. Chapparal is 256 custom homes with no single production builder, which means there is no floor plan library to work from and no duct layout we can assume. We measure the house, look at the existing trunk and returns, check where the flue runs and whether a second one is viable, look at the walkout basement’s exposure, and then run an actual load calculation. Anyone quoting a 4,500-square-foot custom home over the phone is guessing.
That is the walkout being a walkout, and nearly every Chapparal home has one. A walkout has one wall fully above grade and usually heavily glazed, three walls underground, and a completely different heat gain and loss profile than the main floor it shares a thermostat with. On a house this size the cleanest answer is usually to put the walkout level on its own zone or its own system. Balancing dampers helps but rarely finishes the job on a 4,000-plus square foot house.
Usually, yes. At that square footage across multiple levels with a walkout, one system is oversized for shoulder-season loads and undersized for design-day loads at the far end of the ductwork, which is the worst combination. Two correctly-sized systems run longer, gentler cycles, hold temperature better, and mean a failure in January costs you half a house instead of all of it. Whether it is feasible comes down to flue routing, electrical capacity and where a second condenser can sit — which the Chapparal HOA will have an opinion about.
No. Estimates on furnace, AC and heat pump replacement are free, and we quote before we start and stick to it. Diagnostic visits on a broken system are a separate, upfront-priced service — we tell you the number before we drive out, not after.
Yes. Carrier, Lennox, Trane, Rheem, York, Goodman, Amana, Bryant, American Standard and most other residential brands. We install Carrier, Lennox and Trane on replacement projects.
Family-owned in Centennial since 2004. Licensed in the City of Centennial, we pull the permit, and you reach us directly — not a national dispatch center. Same-day service available.
Sources for the facts on this page: City of Centennial Building Division (permits, adopted codes, local design criteria); ACCA Manual J Table 1A (design temperatures, elevation); NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 Climate Normals (degree days, humidity, freeze dates); NFPA 54 (altitude derate); Xcel Energy Colorado 2025–2026 Rebate Summary; Colorado Energy Office Heat Pump Tax Credit; IRS (25C expiration); Arapahoe County Public Health (radon); REcolorado listing records and HOA publications for neighborhood housing stock. Rebate amounts and code editions change — verify current figures with Xcel Energy and the City of Centennial before relying on them.
Don't wait 'til it's too late. When the first cold snap hits, everybody calls at once — and a dead furnace on a Sunday night costs a whole lot more than a tune-up. We're booking September furnace checkups now, while the calendar is still wide open.
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