AC Installation in Lafayette, LA
A new air conditioner in Lafayette will run from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Lafayette Parish will get in touch.
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Seven months of Lafayette heat, and storms in between
Your new air conditioner will run from April through October here, seven months of the year. Summer afternoons average 91°F, so the system spends most of its life working, not idling. A unit sized wrong for your house will short-cycle or struggle to keep up, and either way it wears out faster.
Lafayette Parish has seen 16 hail events and 39 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 1.75 inches. The outdoor unit sits outside through all of that. Any central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2, and with a season this long, the rating you choose above that minimum is worth thinking about.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 16 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 Lafayette Parish compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Lafayette Parish home, from EIA household energy data, Louisiana fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Louisiana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
That license comes from the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, and it covers the contractor, not the job. The state tested that contractor and keeps a record of them before they're allowed to take on work like this. It doesn't mean a state inspector checks this particular installation.
That check comes from your local building office. Installing an air conditioner in most cities and parishes needs a permit before the work starts and an inspection once it's done, and that inspection is what confirms this specific job was done right, separate from whatever the state already knows about the contractor doing it.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There is no single answer without a load calculation done on your actual house. A contractor figures this from your square footage, insulation, window count and orientation, and the layout of your ductwork. Going by tonnage per square foot alone gets it wrong often enough that it is not worth guessing. With summer afternoons here averaging 91°F and cooling needed from April through October, getting the size right matters more than it would somewhere milder. Too big and it cools the air fast but never pulls the humidity down. Too small and it runs constantly without keeping up on the hottest days.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases both the outdoor condenser and the indoor coil get replaced together, even when only the outdoor unit has failed. They are matched to work at a specific efficiency and capacity, and pairing a new condenser with an old coil usually means losing much of that rated efficiency, sometimes voiding the warranty on the new unit outright. A contractor can check whether your existing coil and ductwork are sized to work with a new outdoor unit. If the system is old enough that the coil is near the end of its life anyway, replacing just the condenser now often means paying for two jobs instead of one.
- Do HVAC contractors in Lafayette need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Louisiana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued through the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any one job, so it should already be in place before they start on your air conditioner. Beyond the state license, installing a new air conditioner in most cities and counties also needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done.