AC Installation in Austin, TX
A new air conditioner in Austin will run from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Travis County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of Texas heat, every year
Your air conditioner runs from April through October here, seven months of the year. Summer afternoons average 95°F, so the compressor is working hard most days it runs at all. A unit sized and installed right carries that load without straining.
Travis County has also logged 147 hail events and 103 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail as large as 3 inches. The outdoor unit sits exposed to that. Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet the federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2, so the efficiency floor is already set. What matters after that is whether it is sized for your house and put in correctly.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 95°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 147 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 Travis County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Travis County home, from EIA household energy data, Texas fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Texas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license comes from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. That is what stands between this reader and a contractor nobody has checked.
For an air conditioner installation, the license covers who is allowed to take on the work, but the job itself still needs a permit from the local building office in most cities and counties, along with an inspection once the work is finished. That inspection is what confirms the installation was done right, separate from whatever the license already covers.
Source: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your home, not a chart based on square footage alone. A contractor works out the load by looking at your insulation, your windows, how many rooms you have and which way your house faces, then sizes the unit to match. An oversized unit is its own problem, since it cools the air fast and shuts off before it can run a full cycle. With 95°F summer afternoons and cooling needed April through October here, a system that's sized right has to work for most of the year, so it's worth having a contractor do the load calculation rather than guessing.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor and outdoor units were installed together and are close in age, replace both. Pairing a new outdoor unit with an old indoor coil means they were never tested together, and the mismatch can cost you efficiency and shorten the life of the new equipment. The exception is when the indoor coil is fairly new and still in good shape, in which case a contractor can check whether it will pair correctly with the new outdoor unit. Either way, any new central air installed now has to meet the 14.3 SEER2 federal minimum, so that part isn't a choice.
- Do HVAC contractors in Austin need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Texas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Ask to see the license number before work starts, or look it up directly with TDLR.