AC Installation in Springfield, OH
A new air conditioner in Springfield will run from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Clark County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Three months of real heat, then it sits idle
Summer here runs June through August, with afternoons averaging 83°F. That is a short stretch, but the unit still has to keep up on the hottest days of those three months, then sit through the rest of the year with nothing to do. Clark County has also logged 88 damaging wind events and 15 hail events over the past ten years, so the outdoor unit is worth setting where it has some protection.
Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 13.4 SEER2. That is just the floor. Beyond that, what matters is whether the unit is sized for your home and installed correctly, since even an efficient one will struggle if either of those is off.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 15 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 Clark County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Clark County home, from EIA household energy data, Ohio fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
In Ohio, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties.
Whoever installs your air conditioner in Clark County is not working under a state HVAC license, because Ohio does not issue one for home HVAC work. Licensing is left to the counties, so what is required of that contractor depends on being in Clark County rather than somewhere else in Ohio. Ohio does define a home contractor as someone carrying at least $250,000 in liability insurance, but that is a definition written into state law, not a credential anyone tested for.
With no state license behind this job, the real check on it is local. In most cities and counties, an air conditioner installation needs a permit from the local building office and an inspection once the work is done, and that inspection is what confirms the work was done right.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There's no single number that works for every house. The right size depends on your square footage, how much insulation you have, how many windows you have and which way they face, and the layout of your ductwork. A contractor will walk through the house and run a load calculation to get this right. Going bigger than you need isn't better. An oversized unit cools the air fast then shuts off before it pulls the humidity out, so the house feels clammy even at the temperature you set.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases the whole system should go in together. Your indoor coil and outdoor condenser are matched to work at a specific capacity, and pairing a new condenser with an old coil often means the system never hits the efficiency or cooling output either part was built for. There are exceptions, and a contractor can tell you if your existing indoor coil is a fit. But if your system is old enough that the outdoor unit is failing, the coil is usually not far behind it.
- Do HVAC contractors in Springfield need a state license to work on my home?
- Ohio doesn't license HVAC contractors at the state level for residential work. That's handled county by county instead. Check with Clark County directly to see what they require before you hire someone, since the rules aren't the same everywhere in the state.