Innovating for Impact: New HVAC a Beautiful Thing in the Home of Interior Design Celebrity Leanne Ford

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Project At-a-Glance:

The opportunity: Design and install a comprehensive in-home HVAC system that boosts efficiency and sustainability and vastly improves indoor air quality.

The solutions:

• Trane 14 SEER XR14 60000 BTU Single Stage Heat Pump
• Trane CleanEffects™ Whole House Air Cleaner
• Trane Split System Heat Pump: XV20i Heat Pump
• Trane Two-Stage Hyperion Communicating Air Handler
• ComfortLink® II XL1050 Thermostat

Sustainability outcomes: Reduced carbon footprint with an all-electric system.

Interior designer Leanne Ford and her husband Erik found the fixer-upper home of their dreams when they relocated from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh in 2020. “It sat empty for years. I truly felt like it was waiting for us," Ford said. Four stories tall with 12-foot ceilings, the circa 1900 house was brimming with design potential but needed a complete systems revamp, including the HVAC.

"When starting a new interior design project, cosmetic changes — like picking out paint colors — are the fun part,” Ford said. “But what's behind the walls, the electrical, plumbing updates, structural check-ins, HVAC upgrades, the not-so-glamorous stuff, those are often not talked about."

Among the first jobs on the list: Remove the existing radiant heat system. Though Ford says she loves radiant heat systems, especially the elegant styling of turn-of-the-century radiators, the system they found in the house was less than desirable. The existing fixtures were not only not attractive, but they were also non-functional, replete with leaks and mold.

“At the end of the day, the right decision for my family was to modernize our heating and cooling systems,” Ford said. After researching available options, she selected Trane®. Trane installed a complete HVAC system, including a 5-ton variable speed heat pump, humidifiers, a ventilator, and an array of environmental sensors.

Because several family members suffered from allergies, Ford also added a CleanEffects® Whole Home Air Cleaner. 100 times more effective than a standard one-inch air filter, CleanEffects dramatically reduces dust, pollen, mildew, and other asthma and allergy triggers. Ford also added the Trane ComfortLink® XL1050 thermostat, which would allow the family to optimize temperature and humidity levels in different zones of the house in real-time.

Another key feature: the Trane variable speed system, which allows the compressor, outdoor fan and indoor fan to vary their speed with changing outdoor temperatures, increasing comfort in the home. The Trane Home app added a finishing touch of convenience and control, giving the Fords the ability to monitor or adjust their home environment from anywhere at any time. 

Ford says she and her family are thrilled with the results. Their newly updated home is not only far more comfortable than it was before the new system, but also more efficient.

But perhaps most important of all are the improvements in indoor air quality, and the added safety those improvements can bring. That’s particularly true of the basement. Once a dank, cramped area filled with old boiler components, ducts and near endless wires and pipes, the lower level is now home to Ford’s studio.

Ford says she is now fully confident that the members of her family can live both happy and healthy lives in their new home. “That peace of mind is everything to me,” she says. “The truth is how you feel in a space is just as important, if not more, than how it looks.”

Learn more about this project in Architectural Digest

Learn more about this project in Dwell

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