AC Installation in Phoenix, AZ
A new air conditioner in Phoenix will run from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Maricopa County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of Phoenix heat is hard on a new system
Your air conditioner runs from April through October here, and on summer afternoons it's working against a average high of 103°F. That's seven months of long, hard cycles a year, not just a few weeks of strain.
Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2, so the baseline efficiency is already set. What matters after that is sizing the system to a Phoenix summer and installing it so it can run those long stretches without shortening its own life.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 103°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 82 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 $50 a year to run in Maricopa County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Maricopa County home, from EIA household energy data, Arizona fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Arizona requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license sits with the contractor, not with any one job, so it applies to the business that installs your air conditioner no matter how many jobs they've done before yours. Arizona's Registrar of Contractors tested that business and keeps a record of it. That is different from a state simply logging a business name with no test behind it.
For an installation, that license is the thing accountable for the work, but most cities and counties also require a permit for a new air conditioner and an inspection once it is in. The permit means the local building office looks at the installation itself, separate from anything the state checked when it licensed the contractor.
Sources: Arizona State Legislature · Arizona Registrar of Contractors
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your home's square footage, layout, insulation, and how much sun hits your walls and windows, not just a rule of thumb. A unit that's too big cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the humidity down, so rooms feel clammy. A unit that's too small runs constantly and still can't keep up on a 103 degree afternoon. A contractor works this out with a load calculation on the actual house, not a guess based on square footage alone.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If the indoor and outdoor units are original to each other and matched, replacing just the outdoor unit usually isn't a good idea. The compressor outside and the coil inside are designed to work as a pair, and mismatched equipment runs less efficiently and can wear out sooner. If your indoor coil is old, a contractor may recommend replacing both at once instead of pairing new equipment with an aging coil. The contractor looking at your system can tell you what's original and what's already been swapped out.
- Do HVAC contractors in Phoenix need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Arizona requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued by the Registrar of Contractors. You can check a contractor's license status directly with the Registrar before work starts.