AC Installation in Pell City, AL
A new air conditioner in Pell City will run from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers St. Clair County will get in touch.
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Five months of real heat in Pell City
Your air conditioner works from May through September here, with summer afternoons averaging 89°F. That is most of the warm part of the year spent running, not just the odd hot week.
St. Clair County has also seen its share of hail and wind, 17 hail events and 60 damaging wind events over the past ten years, some hail up to 3 inches across. An outdoor unit sits exposed to all of that, so the condenser and its coil take the brunt of a bad storm. If your new system is a central air conditioner built to current standards, it will carry a rating of at least 14.3 SEER2, the federal minimum for efficiency.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 89°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 17 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
Going above the federal minimum saves little here, about $20 a year.
Estimates for a typical St. Clair 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 tests and licenses the contractor, not each job. The license on file means this contractor passed the state's exam and answers to the board. It is not a separate approval for this particular installation.
That approval, where it exists, comes from the local building office. In most cities and counties, installing a new air conditioner needs a permit and an inspection once the work is done, and that inspection is what checks this unit went in correctly.
Source: Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There's no single number that works for every house. It depends on your square footage, your ceiling height, how much shade the house gets, and how well it's insulated. A contractor will run a load calculation, not just measure the square footage, to get the size right. Getting this wrong in either direction costs you. Too small and it runs constantly without cooling the house. Too big and it cools fast but leaves the place damp because it never runs long enough to pull the humidity out. With summer afternoons here averaging 89°F, getting the size right matters more than getting a bigger unit.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases you replace both together. The outdoor condenser and the indoor coil are matched to work at a specific efficiency, and pairing a new condenser with an old coil usually means the system never hits the rating it's supposed to. It can also void the manufacturer's warranty on the new unit. If your indoor coil is old enough that the outdoor unit is failing, the coil is usually close behind it, so a contractor will typically look at both before recommending a replacement.
- Do HVAC contractors in Pell City 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. Ask to see it before work starts. It's a straightforward way to know the person working on your system has met the state's requirements.