- 1962median year Wartrace homes were built
- 630people (ACS 2020–2024)
- 89.4°Fmean July high, Shelbyville station
What are Wartrace houses like to work on?
Older than almost anywhere else we go. The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey puts the median year built for homes in Wartrace at 1962, so half the houses in town are past sixty. A house that age has likely outlived more than one furnace or heat pump, and the ductwork under the floor can be a patchwork of whatever each owner added. It’s worth having the ducts looked at whenever a full system replacement is on the table. The same survey counts 23 mobile homes among the town’s 403 housing units, about 6 percent.
Downtown sits inside the Downtown Wartrace Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In an older building there, a ductless mini split can heat and cool a room through one small hole for the line set, with no new duct chases cut through plaster.
Same hours every day, and no drive to speak of
The phone is answered from 8 AM to 8 PM, Sunday included, and an evening call doesn’t have to wait for morning. Misti T. put it this way on Google: We contacted him around 7:00pm, and he came out that same evening at no additional charge.
If the system has quit outright, start with AC and heating repair. If two back bedrooms run warm while the rest of the house is fine, the trouble may be in the ductwork or a dryer vent run and not the unit at all.
Summers and winters here
We go by the Shelbyville Water Department station for Wartrace weather. NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals there give a mean July high of 89.4°F and a mean January low of 28.9°F. So a heat pump in this town spends the summer cooling against afternoons near 90 and still has to hold the house through January nights that average below freezing.
Is there a rebate on a new heat pump?
There is, through TVA’s EnergyRight program: $800 for a heat pump rated 17 SEER2 or higher, $500 at 15 SEER2 or higher. The catch is that a member of TVA’s Quality Contractor Network has to install it and submit the claim. Duck River EMC’s rebate page says its members get it through EnergyRight on those terms. Ask us on the call whether we can file it for your job before you count on the money.
Permits, and a little about the town
Bedford County Codes Administration handles permits for the unincorporated parts of the county. We didn’t find a separate office for the town, so on a job inside the Wartrace limits we confirm who issues the mechanical permit before any equipment is ordered.
Wartrace was incorporated in 1858 and has held its horse show since 1906. The Walking Horse Hotel still operates downtown, and the Tennessee Walking Horse National Museum has been there since 2012. It’s a small place, 630 people by the Census estimates, and it’s where we start every drive.