AC Installation in Sacramento, CA
A new air conditioner in Sacramento will run from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Sacramento County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
What Sacramento summers ask of a new system
Your air conditioner works from May through September here, five months of the year, with afternoons averaging 92°F. That is a long stretch of real load, not just a few hot weeks, and the unit you install needs to hold up across all of it summer after summer.
Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2. That is the floor, not a special feature, so the real choice is what condition and installation quality you're buying above it.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 92°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 2 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 Sacramento County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Sacramento County home, from EIA household energy data, California fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
California requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
California licenses HVAC contractors through the Contractors State License Board, and that license belongs to the contractor, not to any one job. It is the state's record that the contractor was tested and is on file, not a promise about any single crew or any single day's work.
For this job, that license is what you are trusting when you hire someone to install your air conditioner. In most cities and counties, an installation like this also needs a permit from the local building office and an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is separate from the license. It is what checks whether this particular job was done right, on this particular house.
Sources: California Legislative Counsel · Contractors State License Board
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your home's square footage, how many windows it has, which way they face, how much insulation is in the attic and walls, and the layout of the rooms. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not by matching the size of the unit you have now. An oversized unit cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, so rooms feel clammy. An undersized one runs constantly on a 92°F afternoon and still can't keep up. Get the load calculation done for your specific house rather than guessing from square footage alone.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases it makes sense to replace the outdoor and indoor units together. The compressor outside and the coil inside are matched to work at a specific efficiency, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old indoor coil usually means the system never reaches the efficiency either part was built for. New units also run on different refrigerant than older systems, and an old coil often is not built for it. A contractor can look at the age and condition of your indoor coil and tell you whether it's a candidate to keep or whether it needs to go at the same time.
- Do HVAC contractors in Sacramento need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. California requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued by the Contractors State License Board. Ask to see the license number and check it against the CSLB before work starts. This matters more on a job like an AC installation, where the work has to be inspected and done to code, than it does on a small repair.