AC Installation in Clarksburg, WV
A new air conditioner in Clarksburg will run from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Harrison County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Three months of real heat, and storms in between
Clarksburg only asks for cooling from June through August, but those afternoons average 83°F and your air conditioner has to keep up every one of them. A short season still means real work packed into a few months, and a new unit needs to be sized right to handle it instead of running longer than it should.
Harrison County has logged 124 damaging wind events and 15 hail storms over the past ten years, one dropping hailstones over an inch across. Whatever goes in should be able to take a season outdoors. 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
- 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
Going above the federal minimum saves little here, about $20 a year.
Estimates for a typical Harrison 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.
West Virginia tests contractors before it licenses them and keeps a record of who holds one. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so it tells you this person met the state's standard before they ever walked into your house, not just that they signed up for this one.
For an air conditioner install, that license is what stands behind the work. Beyond it, most cities and counties in the state require a permit for this kind of installation, along with an inspection once it's done, so someone from the local building office checks the work independent of the contractor who did it.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There is no single answer without looking at your house. A contractor works this out from the square footage, the insulation, how many windows you have and which way they face, and the layout of your ductwork. Putting in one that is too big cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, so the house feels clammy. Too small and it runs constantly on the hot afternoons here and still cannot keep up. A contractor doing your installation should run this calculation rather than just matching the size of the old unit.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases it makes sense to replace both the outdoor unit and the indoor coil together. The two are matched to work at a specific efficiency and capacity, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old indoor coil usually means the system cannot reach the rating either piece was built for. There are also refrigerant differences between older and newer equipment that can rule out mixing them. A contractor can look at the age and condition of what you have now and tell you whether the coil is worth keeping.
- Do HVAC contractors in Clarksburg 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. Installing an air conditioner is also work that typically needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the job is done, so ask whoever you hire how they handle that step.