AC Installation in Dothan, AL
A new air conditioner in Dothan will run from May through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Houston County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Six months of Dothan heat is hard on a new system
From May through October your air conditioner runs almost every day, working against summer afternoons that average 91°F. That kind of stretch means long cooling cycles day after day, and a unit sized wrong will struggle to keep the house comfortable when it matters most.
Dothan's outdoor unit also has to sit through the area's weather. Over the past ten years the area has recorded 205 damaging wind events and 7 hail events, one dropping hailstones 2.75 inches across. Any new central air conditioner installed here has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2, and the contractor installing yours should size it to your home rather than just match the old one.
- 6 months
- May through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 7 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 13.4 SEER2
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A higher-efficiency unit would save about $30 a year to run in Houston County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Houston County home, from EIA household energy data, Alabama fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Alabama requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors issues this license, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. That means the same license is on file whether the work is a repair call or a full installation, and the board is the record of who holds one.
For an air conditioner installation, that license is what stands behind the person doing the work, but it is not the only check on this job. Most cities and counties in Alabama require a permit from the local building office before the installation starts, and an inspection once it is done. That inspection is what confirms the unit was put in correctly, separate from whatever the license already says about the contractor.
Source: Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There is no single number that works for every house. The right size depends on the square footage, how much shade the house gets, how many windows it has, how well it is insulated, and how many people live there. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a guess based on the old unit's size. Getting this right matters more here than it might seem, since summer afternoons average 91°F and an undersized unit will run constantly trying to keep up.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases, if the outdoor unit needs replacing, the indoor coil should go with it. The two are matched to work together, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old indoor coil often means the system never reaches the efficiency it is rated for. Age matters too. If the indoor coil is old enough that the outdoor unit is failing, the coil is usually not far behind it. A contractor can look at both and tell you whether the coil still has life left in it.
- Do HVAC contractors in Dothan need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Alabama requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued by the Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors. Before hiring anyone, it's worth asking to see that license or checking it with the board directly.