AC Repair in Charleston, WV
Air conditioners here run from June through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kanawha County will get in touch.
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Four months of hard running, with storms on top of it
Your air conditioner in Kanawha County gets four months of real work, June through September, with summer afternoons averaging 84°F. That is not a long season, but it means the unit sits idle most of the year and then has to run hard as soon as the heat sets in. A system that was low on refrigerant or had a weak capacitor over the winter often shows it the first hot week of June, when the compressor has to work to keep up.
Kanawha County has also logged 32 hail events and 259 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail as large as 4.25 inches. That kind of storm bends fins on the outdoor coil and can knock the unit out of alignment or damage the fan blade. After a bad storm, listen for a new rattle or a unit that runs but does not cool like it did before.
- 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
- 259 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would save little on running costs in Kanawha County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical Kanawha County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, West Virginia fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when a part like a capacitor or contactor has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the compressor has failed or the system uses R-22 refrigerant, which is no longer made.
West Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
West Virginia's Commissioner of Labor issues the license and keeps the record of who holds one. It is tied to the contractor, not to the specific job at your house, so the same license covers this repair and whatever else that contractor takes on elsewhere.
For an air conditioner repair, that license is what stands behind the person doing the work. If the repair opens up the refrigerant side of the system, the technician also has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, which is a federal requirement in every state, not something West Virginia adds on top.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- A few common causes explain most of this. A clogged air filter chokes off airflow across the indoor coil until it can't pull heat out of the air anymore. A dirty outdoor coil can't release the heat the system just collected, so cooling drops off. Low refrigerant is another cause, and it almost always means a leak. That's not something to top off and forget, since a licensed contractor has to find the leak and fix it before adding more.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Check the condensate drain line first. It's the most common reason water shows up where it shouldn't. It clogs with algae and dust over time until water backs up and drips or pools near the indoor unit. A frozen evaporator coil that's now thawing can cause the same thing. If the air was blowing weak or warm before you noticed the water, that's likely the real cause. A contractor can clear the line or find why the coil froze in the first place.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the breaker. A dead thermostat battery or a tripped breaker will stop the system cold with no other warning. If both check out, the outdoor unit may have tripped its own safety switch, or the capacitor that starts the compressor may have failed. Either way, that's a repair for a licensed contractor. Anyone working on the refrigerant side of the system also needs EPA 608 certification, which any properly licensed contractor here will have.