AC Installation in Butler, PA
A new air conditioner in Butler will run from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Butler County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Three summer months, and a condenser that faces the weather outside
Butler summers are short but they still work an air conditioner hard. Afternoons average 81°F from June through August, and that's the stretch a new system has to handle every year.
The condenser sits outside through all of it, and outside is where the weather happens. Over the past ten years the area has logged 79 hail events, with hail up to 2.5 inches, and 204 damaging wind events. Any new central air conditioner installed today also has to meet the federal efficiency minimum of 13.4 SEER2.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 81°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 79 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 Butler County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Butler County home, from EIA household energy data, Pennsylvania fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Pennsylvania requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the business on file with the state and nothing more. Nobody tested this contractor's work to get that number, and the state does not track complaints or pull registrations over bad installs. Pennsylvania also does not let Butler County or any municipality layer on its own HVAC license, so this registration is the only state-level record that exists for the person working on your system.
For an air conditioner install, most local building offices require a permit and an inspection once the work is done, and that is what actually checks the install. An inspector looks at the finished job, not the state registration. If Butler County's building office follows that same rule, that inspection is what catches a bad refrigerant line or a unit set up wrong.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There is no single answer that works for every house, and picking by square footage alone gets it wrong. A contractor sizes the unit using a load calculation that accounts for your square footage, insulation, window area and direction, and how many people are usually home. Too big a unit cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, so the house feels damp. Too small a unit runs constantly on the hot afternoons here and still can't keep up. Have a contractor run the calculation for your house rather than matching the old unit's size.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If the indoor coil and outdoor unit were installed together and are close in age, replacing just the outdoor unit usually causes problems. The two are matched to work at a specific capacity and refrigerant flow, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old indoor coil can mean poor cooling and added strain on the new compressor. If the indoor coil is old, cracked, or leaking refrigerant, replacing both at once avoids paying for labor on the coil separately later. A contractor can check the age and condition of the indoor coil and tell you whether it can be matched with a new outdoor unit or not.
- Do HVAC contractors in Butler need a state license to work on my home?
- Pennsylvania does not license HVAC contractors through a trade board, but it does require them to register with the state. That registration goes through the Bureau of Consumer Protection. Ask to see a contractor's registration before signing a contract, and check that the name on it matches the business you're hiring.