AC Installation in Gainesville, FL
A new air conditioner in Gainesville will run from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Alachua County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
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Seven months of cooling, and afternoons near 91°F
Your air conditioner runs from April through October here, seven months out of the year. Summer afternoons average 91°F, and that is the load it has to answer every day for most of the year.
Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2. That is the floor, not a feature, so the difference between systems on the market comes down to what is built above it and how well it is sized and installed for your house.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 16 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 Alachua County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Alachua County home, from EIA household energy data, Florida fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Florida requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license comes from the state's Construction Industry Licensing Board, and it covers the contractor, not the job. That means the board tested this person before handing it over, and there's a record on file if something goes wrong. It doesn't mean every install gets checked. It means the person doing yours had to prove they knew how before the state let them work.
For an air conditioner install, the local building office is what actually looks at this specific job. Most cities and counties in Florida require a permit for a new air conditioner, and an inspection once it's in. That inspection is what catches a bad connection or a unit set up wrong, not the license itself. The license tells you the contractor is qualified. The permit and inspection tell you this particular job got looked at.
Sources: Florida Legislature · Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, your ceiling height, how much shade your house gets, and how well it's insulated, so there's no number to give without looking at the house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not by matching the size of your old unit. Going bigger than you need isn't a safety net either, an oversized system cools the air fast then shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, which leaves the house feeling clammy. With summer afternoons here averaging 91°F for seven months of the year, getting this number right matters more than it would somewhere milder.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases both the outdoor unit and the indoor coil should be replaced together. The two are matched at the factory to work at a certain efficiency, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old coil usually means you lose that efficiency and can shorten the life of the new compressor. If your indoor coil is still fairly new and in good shape, a contractor can tell you whether it's a safe match. Age matters too, if the rest of the system is old, replacing only the outdoor unit just delays a second job down the road.
- Do HVAC contractors in Gainesville need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Florida requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued by the Construction Industry Licensing Board. Ask to see the license number before work starts, and you can check it against the board's records yourself.