AC Installation in McAlester, OK
A new air conditioner in McAlester will run from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Pittsburg County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Five months of McAlester heat is hard on a new system
From May through September your air conditioner is doing real work, and summer afternoons here average 91°F. That is five straight months of long run times, not a few hot weeks. A new system has to be sized and installed to hold up to that stretch, not just get through a mild day.
Pittsburg County has also seen its share of hail and wind, 67 hail events and 61 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 2.5 inches. The outdoor unit sits outside through all of that, so where it goes and how it is protected matters. Any new central air conditioner installed today also has to meet the federal efficiency minimum of 14.3 SEER2.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 67 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 Pittsburg County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Pittsburg County home, from EIA household energy data, Oklahoma fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Oklahoma requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Construction Industries Board issues that license, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. That means the same license is supposed to stand behind every installation that contractor does in Oklahoma, this one included.
For an air conditioner install, that license is what you're relying on, but it doesn't stand alone. Most cities and counties in Oklahoma also require a permit for this kind of job, along with an inspection once the work is finished. The permit puts the installation on record with the local building office, and the inspection is what actually checks the work in your home.
Source: Oklahoma State Legislature
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, your ceiling height, how many windows you have, which way they face, and how much insulation is in your attic and walls. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage alone. Putting in a unit that's too big cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the humidity down, so the house feels damp. Too small, and it runs constantly on the hot afternoons here without ever catching up. A contractor who comes out to the house can measure what's actually there and size it right.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If the indoor coil and the outdoor unit were installed together and matched to each other, replacing just the outdoor unit can throw that match off. A new outdoor unit paired with an old indoor coil often runs less efficiently than the two working as they were designed to, and some manufacturers won't warranty the new unit without a matched coil. Age matters too. If the indoor coil is old enough that it's close to needing its own replacement, most contractors will tell you to do both at once rather than pay for labor on the coil again later. A contractor can look at what's installed now and tell you whether the coil and unit still make sense as a pair.
- Do HVAC contractors in McAlester need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Oklahoma requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued through the Construction Industries Board. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any one job, so it covers them for installing your air conditioner the same as any other HVAC work. Most cities and counties also require a permit for a new air conditioner installation, with an inspection once the work is done. Check that whoever you hire holds that license before they start.