AC Installation in Charleston, WV
A new air conditioner in Charleston will run from June through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Kanawha County will get in touch.
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Four months of real heat in Kanawha County
Summer afternoons here average 84°F, and a new air conditioner has to hold that line every day from June through September. That is four months of steady run time, not just a few hot spells.
Kanawha County also sees its share of hail and wind, 32 hail events and 259 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hailstones as large as 4.25 inches. An outdoor unit sits through all of that, so how it's installed and protected matters as much as the equipment itself. Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet the federal minimum of 13.4 SEER2, so that baseline is already set before you choose a system.
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 84°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 32 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 Kanawha County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Kanawha County home, from EIA household energy data, West Virginia fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
West Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is tied to the contractor, not to any single job. It comes from the Commissioner of Labor, which means the state tested the contractor and keeps a record of them before they ever show up at your house.
That license covers the contractor doing the work, but the installation itself is checked separately. In most cities and counties in West Virginia, installing an air conditioner needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what checks the actual installation.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- It depends on your home's square footage, insulation, window placement, and how many rooms it has, so there's no single number that works for every house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a tape measure and a guess. Going too big is just as bad as too small, an oversized unit cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, leaving the house feeling clammy. Have a contractor size it for your specific house rather than matching whatever was there before.
- 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 pairing a new condenser with an old coil often means the system never hits the efficiency or cooling output it's rated for. If your indoor coil is old enough that the outdoor unit needs replacing, it's usually near the end of its own life anyway. A contractor can look at the age and condition of the indoor coil and tell you whether it's worth keeping.
- Do HVAC contractors in Charleston need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. West Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued through the Commissioner of Labor. That license covers the contractor as a business, not each individual job. On top of that, installing a new air conditioner in most cities and counties needs a permit from the local building office, plus an inspection once the work is done.