AC Installation in Laredo, TX
A new air conditioner in Laredo will run from March through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Webb County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of cooling in Laredo heat
Your air conditioner runs March through October here, eight months of the year, with summer afternoons averaging 98°F. That is most of the year spent cooling, and it puts real hours on a compressor before it ever gets a break.
Webb County has also seen 48 hail events and 31 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 3.25 inches. A new outdoor unit sits outside through that weather, so the condenser and its coil need to hold up to more than just heat. Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2, the baseline for a unit that will run this many months of the year.
- 8 months
- March through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 98°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 48 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 $40 a year to run in Webb County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Webb 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 is issued to the contractor, not to this job or any other. TDLR tests contractors before they can hold one, and the license is on record with the state. That is what stands behind the person or company doing the work.
For an air conditioner installation in Webb County, a local permit is also part of the job in most cities and counties. The building office issues the permit and inspects the installation once it's done, checking the work itself rather than who did it. Between the two, one confirms who is allowed to do this work and the other confirms the work was done right.
Source: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage of your house alone. A contractor looks at your insulation, your windows, your ceiling height, and which walls face the afternoon sun before they land on a number. With summer highs here running near 98°F for eight months of the year, a system that's even a little undersized will run constantly and still struggle to keep up. Getting the size wrong in either direction, too big or too small, costs you comfort and shortens the life of the unit.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases you replace both the outdoor unit and the indoor coil together. They're matched to work at a specific efficiency, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old coil usually means you lose the efficiency gain you're paying for, sometimes it just won't perform right at all. If your indoor coil and ductwork are still in good shape and were installed recently, a contractor can tell you whether they'll match up with new equipment. That's a judgment call that needs someone looking at your actual system, not a general rule.
- Do HVAC contractors in Laredo 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, it's a fair question and any licensed contractor expects it.