AC Installation in New Orleans, LA
A new air conditioner in New Orleans will run from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Orleans Parish will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Your new AC has to earn its keep here
Cooling season in Orleans Parish runs April through October, seven months of the year. Summer afternoons average 90°F, so a new system spends most of the year working, not just a few weeks of it.
Any central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2. That is the baseline, and it holds regardless of the size of the home or the unit going in. Storms here have brought damaging wind and hail over an inch wide in past years, so where the outdoor unit sits and how it is secured matter too.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 6 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 Orleans Parish compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Orleans 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.
Louisiana's board tests contractors before it licenses them and keeps a record of who holds that license. What it does not do is sign off on any single job. The license belongs to the contractor, not to the installation happening at your house.
For this job, an air conditioner installation, the license tells you the contractor met the state's standard to do this kind of work at all. Whether this particular installation is done right is a separate question. In most cities and parishes, that answer comes from the local building office, which requires a permit for the job and an inspection once the work is finished.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, your ceiling height, how much shade and sun the walls and windows get, and how well the attic and walls hold heat. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage alone. Sizing matters more here than in milder climates, since the system has to hold up through summer afternoons that average 90°F for seven months of the year. Too big and it cools the air fast but leaves the house damp. Too small and it runs all afternoon without catching up.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If the indoor coil and outdoor unit were installed together and are close in age, replacing just the outdoor unit usually is not a good option. The coil and the compressor are matched to work at specific pressures, and pairing an old coil with a new condenser can mean the system never runs the way it should, and it can shorten the life of the new unit. A contractor can check the age and condition of the coil and tell you whether it makes sense to replace both at once. New central air conditioners installed today also have to meet a 14.3 SEER2 minimum, which the old coil may not be built to work with.
- Do HVAC contractors in New Orleans 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. The license covers the contractor, not the individual job, so it is worth confirming before work starts rather than after. Installing an air conditioner in most cities and counties also needs a permit from the local building office and an inspection once the work is done.