AC Repair in Opelousas, LA
Air conditioners here run from April through October. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers St. Landry Parish will get in touch.
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Seven months of Louisiana heat wears on your AC
Your air conditioner works April through October here, seven months of the year. On afternoons that average 91°F, it runs long stretches just to hold the temperature you set. That kind of runtime wears on the compressor and the capacitor that gets it started.
St. Landry Parish has also seen 52 damaging wind events and 5 hail storms over the past ten years, with hail up to 1.25 inches. Wind can knock the outdoor unit's cabinet out of alignment or dent the fins around the coil. Hail that size can bend those fins further, and once they're crushed the coil can't shed heat the way it should. You'll notice it as a system that runs longer than it used to, or air that isn't as cold as it should be.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 5 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 52 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $70 a year off cooling for a typical St. Landry Parish home.
Estimates for a typical St. Landry Parish home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Louisiana 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.
Louisiana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
That license is issued by the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. The board stands behind that license, and it covers the contractor's work in general rather than being issued fresh for each repair. When your air conditioner needs work, the license tells you the person doing it answered to that board to get there.
Repairing an air conditioner usually means opening the refrigerant side of the system, and federal law covers that part on its own. Any technician who touches the refrigerant lines has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, in Louisiana or any other state. The state license accounts for the contractor, and the federal certification accounts for the refrigerant work itself.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most of the time it is a dirty filter cutting off airflow, or the system is low on refrigerant from a leak. A clogged filter starves the coil of air and it can freeze over, which then blows warm or weak air until it thaws. Low refrigerant only happens from a leak, since the system does not use it up on its own. Either way, a technician needs to check the coil and the charge to find out which one it is.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The drain line that carries condensation away is probably clogged. That line collects water off the coil all summer long, and algae or dirt can block it, especially by the time you're months into the season. When it backs up, the water has nowhere to go but out of the unit or down through the ceiling if the air handler is in the attic. A frozen coil that is thawing out can also leave water where you do not expect it.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat batteries and the breaker before you assume it is the unit itself. If the breaker keeps tripping when you reset it, do not keep forcing it back on, that points to an electrical problem inside the system. It could also be the capacitor, which gives the compressor and fan the jolt they need to start, and a bad one often means the unit hums but does not run. A contractor licensed by the state can open it up and test which part failed.