Lehigh County · Lower Macungie Township
Wescosville is the part of Lower Macungie Township along Hamilton Boulevard where Route 222 meets I-78, about eight minutes from the Unity shop in Macungie. Tyler Furbacher owns the company, looks at the house himself and installs what he quotes.
Nearly half of Wescosville heats with electricity, and 52 percent of the housing went up between 1970 and 1989. Put those together and you get the classic Lehigh Valley split-level or colonial with electric baseboard, or a first-generation heat pump that is decades past its design life. Eighty-one percent of the housing is detached and 89 percent owner-occupied, so these are people fixing their own houses to stay in.
About 8 minutes from Macungie
A 1980s heat pump runs at roughly half the seasonal efficiency of a current cold-climate unit. In Wescosville that is the single largest saving on the block.
Sixteen percent of Wescosville still heats with oil and another 4 percent with propane. If that is your house, the oil savings estimator takes your real gallons and prices a heat pump, a hybrid and a new oil system against what you pay now.
What the work here actually looks like
- 1970s and 80s houses on electric heat. Baseboard, an electric furnace, or a heat pump from the build-out. A cold-climate heat pump on the existing ducts is the normal replacement, and against resistance heat it cuts the electricity used for heating by roughly two thirds.
- The 2000s wave, 26 percent of the housing. Gas furnaces and air conditioners from the Route 222 corridor build-out, now 20 years old and failing in matched pairs.
- About 520 households on oil or propane. The older corridor properties and the lots past the mains. Oil furnaces and boilers get cleaned and serviced, and the conversion numbers get run when the equipment is due, not before.
- Repairs, cleanings and tune-ups on whatever is there. We tell you when a repair is the right call.
The heat pump that came with the house
A lot of Wescosville got its first heat pump in the 1980s, when PPL was pushing electric heat and builders obliged. Equipment from that era was rated around 7 to 8 SEER and had no low-temperature capacity to speak of, so the electric strips did most of the work below freezing and the bills showed it. A current cold-climate unit holds most of its capacity at 5 °F, which matters against a winter design temperature near 8 °F and about 5,800 heating degree days.
The catch on a 1980s house is the ductwork. It was drawn for the airflow of the day, the returns are usually undersized, and the second floor of a split-level never quite keeps up. Static pressure gets measured on the running system before a quote, and where the return is starved, duct changes go in the price. New equipment on bad ducts is how a homeowner ends up unhappy with a good heat pump.
Baseboard houses and the no-duct problem
Where the heat is electric baseboard, there are no ducts at all. Two honest routes: ductless heads, one per zone, which add cooling at the same time and leave the baseboard in place as backup; or a compact ducted system run through the attic or a stacked closet where the house offers a path. The panel gets checked first, and it is usually fine — a heat pump draws less than the baseboard it replaces.
PPL Electric rebates apply in Wescosville, currently in the $225 to $325 range for qualifying heat pumps depending on type and efficiency tier. Modest, but real and claimable.
Common questions about HVAC work in Wescosville
My heat pump is from the 1980s and still runs. Why replace it?
Because it is running on the electric strips more than you think. Have the bills looked at against a current unit’s numbers before deciding. Often the saving pays for the replacement well inside the new unit’s life, and you get real air conditioning out of it.
The upstairs of my split-level is always hot in summer and cold in winter.
That is airflow, not equipment. Split-levels usually have one return on the main level and long undersized runs to the bedrooms. The fix is duct changes or a dedicated return, sometimes one ductless head for the upstairs, and it gets diagnosed with a manometer, not a guess.
Is there a gas main on my street?
About 31 percent of Wescosville heats with utility gas, so on many streets yes and on many no. UGI extends a service line at no cost within 150 feet of an existing main; past that the run is on the homeowner. Confirm before planning a conversion around it.
Who issues the permit?
Wescosville is in Lower Macungie Township, 3400 Brookside Road, Macungie, (610) 966-4343. Pennsylvania moved to the 2021 IRC and 2021 IECC on 1 January 2026, so the work is judged against that code.
Reference: housing, climate and permits
- Geography
- Wescosville is a community inside Lower Macungie Township; the statistics above are for the census-designated place.
- Housing
- Population 7,148. 2,689 housing units, 88.5 percent owner-occupied. Median year built 1984. 6.1 percent built before 1940, 13.9 percent before 1970, and 28.0 percent in 2000 or later. ACS 2020–2024 five-year estimates.
- Heating fuel
- Electricity 48.2 percent, utility gas 30.7 percent, fuel oil 16.1 percent, bottled gas 3.7 percent. ACS 2020–2024, table B25040.
- Design conditions
- Winter 99 percent design temperature near 8 °F; summer 1 percent near 91 °F. About 5,800 heating degree days base 65 at Allentown ABE, NOAA 1991–2020 normals.
- Utilities
- Electricity PPL Electric Utilities. Gas UGI Utilities where a main reaches the street. PPL heat pump rebates apply.
- Permits
- Lower Macungie Township, 3400 Brookside Road, Macungie PA 18062, (610) 966-4343.
- Code
- Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code moved to the 2021 IRC and 2021 IECC effective 1 January 2026.
Nearby areas Unity also covers
Same van, same owner. Each town has its own page because the housing and the fuel genuinely differ.
Every town Unity serves is listed on the service areas page.
Book HVAC service in Wescosville
Call Unity Heating & Air Conditioning at (267) 644-9516 to get on the schedule, or send details through the contact page. Repairs, cleanings, installations and replacements run out of Macungie. Emergency calls are taken at any hour.
