AC Installation in Dallas, TX
A new air conditioner in Dallas will run from May through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Dallas County will get in touch.
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Six months of Texas heat, and hail besides
Your air conditioner works from May through October here, six months of the year, with summer afternoons averaging 94°F. That is a long stretch of hard running, and a unit that is undersized or aging will struggle to keep up on the hottest days.
Dallas County has logged 186 hail events and 145 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 4 inches recorded. If you're installing new, anything built since 2023 has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2, so the efficiency floor is already higher than older systems still running in a lot of homes here.
- 6 months
- May through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 94°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 186 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 Dallas County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Dallas 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.
TDLR tests contractors before it licenses them, and it keeps a record of who holds one. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license that qualifies someone to install an air conditioner in one house covers the next one too.
For this job, that license is what stands behind the person doing the work. It does not replace the permit. Installing an air conditioner in Dallas County still needs a permit from the local building office in most cities and counties, and an inspection once the work is done, separate from anything the state license covers.
Source: Texas Department of Licensing and 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 much insulation is in the walls and attic. There's no simple chart that gets this right, because two houses the same size can need different sized units. A contractor measures the house and runs a load calculation to find the number. Going bigger than what the house needs isn't better. An oversized unit cools the air fast then shuts off before it pulls the humidity out of the room, so the house feels clammy even at the temperature you set.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and outdoor unit are more than a few years apart in age, replacing just the outdoor unit usually isn't the better choice. The two are matched to work together, and pairing a new condenser with an old coil can mean the system never reaches the efficiency either part was built for. Some new refrigerants also aren't compatible with older coils at all. A contractor can look at both parts and tell you whether they're still a workable match or whether it's time to replace them together.
- Do HVAC contractors in Dallas 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 it before work starts, or look up the license number on the TDLR site yourself.