AC Installation in San Antonio, TX
A new air conditioner in San Antonio will run from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Bexar County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of San Antonio heat, and the storms in between
Your air conditioner runs from April through October here, seven months of the year. On afternoons that average 95°F, it is not cycling on and off, it is running long stretches just to hold the house steady. That is seven months of load on the compressor and the coil, longer than most of the country asks of a system.
Bexar County has also logged 268 hail events and 104 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail as large as 5.5 inches. The outdoor unit sits outside through all of it, so the condenser and the coil fins need to hold up to more than heat. Any new system installed now also has to meet the federal efficiency minimum of 14.3 SEER2, the baseline for what a unit is allowed to do with the power it uses.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 95°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 268 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 Bexar County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Bexar 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 Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation tests and records HVAC contractors before they can take on jobs like this one. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so it follows them from one house to the next rather than being issued fresh each time.
For an air conditioner installation, that state license is what stands behind the person doing the work. Beyond it, most cities and counties in Texas require a permit for this kind of installation, along with an inspection once it is finished, so someone from the local building office checks the work independent of the contractor who did it.
Source: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, your insulation, how many windows you have and which way they face, and how many people live in the house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage alone. Bigger isn't better here. An oversized unit cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the humidity down, so the house feels clammy even at the temperature you set. With summer afternoons here hitting 95°F and stretching from April through October, a system that's sized right will run longer, steadier cycles and actually keep up.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and outdoor unit were installed together and matched to each other, replacing just the outdoor unit usually isn't a good idea. Manufacturers pair the outdoor condenser with a specific indoor coil, and putting a new condenser on an old coil can mean the system never hits the efficiency or capacity it's rated for. It also can void the warranty on the new part. A contractor can look at the age and condition of both pieces and tell you whether the coil is worth keeping or whether it makes sense to replace them as a set.
- Do HVAC contractors in San Antonio 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, and you can look it up on the TDLR site to confirm it's current.