AC Installation in Atlanta, GA
A new air conditioner in Atlanta will run from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Fulton County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
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Five months of Fulton County heat, every year
Your air conditioner works from May through September here, with summer afternoons averaging 88°F. That is five months of steady run time, year after year.
Fulton County also sees its share of hail and wind, 30 hail events and 162 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hailstones up to 1.75 inches recorded. An outdoor unit sits through all of it. If your new system was built after 2023, it has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2, so it starts out efficient. What matters after that is whether it was sized and installed to handle a Fulton County summer.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 30 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
Going above the federal minimum saves little here, about $20 a year.
Estimates for a typical Fulton County home, from EIA household energy data, Georgia fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Georgia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The State Construction Industry Licensing Board issues that license, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. It means the state tested this contractor and keeps a record of them. That record follows the business from one install to the next, not just this one.
For an air conditioner install in Fulton County, the license tells you the person doing the work was tested and is on record with the state. Most cities and counties also require a permit for this kind of job, plus an inspection once it's done, and that's where someone checks that the unit was set up correctly, not the state license itself. Georgia's rule and the local permit cover different parts of the same job.
Source: Georgia Secretary of State
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There's no single number that applies to every house. It depends on your square footage, how many windows you have and which way they face, how much insulation is in your attic and walls, and how many people live there. A contractor sizes your system with a load calculation, not a rule of thumb based on the house next door. Getting this right matters more here than you might think, since summer afternoons average 88°F and the unit needs to be sized to handle that heat without running nonstop or short cycling.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases, replace both together. The outdoor condenser and the indoor coil are matched to work at a specific capacity and efficiency, and pairing a new condenser with an old coil usually means you lose the efficiency gains and can shorten the life of the new unit. If your indoor coil is old enough that the outdoor unit needs replacing, it's likely close to the end of its own life anyway. A contractor can look at the age and condition of both pieces and tell you whether the coil has enough life left to make replacing just the outdoor unit worth it.
- Do HVAC contractors in Atlanta need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Georgia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued by the State Construction Industry Licensing Board. Ask to see the license number before work starts, and you can verify it with the board directly.