How Much Does It Cost to Install Air Conditioning?
If you have an older home with few or no air conditioning ducts, installing central air can be extremely expensive…
The cost to install an AC unit has two major components: the equipment and the labor. The price of each will depend on many factors, including the size of your unit, accessibility of your home’s ductwork, brand/model chosen, contractor fees, geographical region where your house is located, etc.
But over at One Project Closer, there are some new figures for us to consider – Average AC Installation Costs. They appear to be based on data culled from Yellow Pages listings across the country (I’m trying to confirm this). Here are what I think are their line figures for a new system installation:
< $500 – small system, 2-3 rooms (16000 BTU) costs range from $387.00 to $549.00
$550-$650 – medium system, 3-4 rooms (24000 BTU) costs range from $342.00 to $479.00
$650-$850 – extensive system, 4+ rooms (36000 BTU) costs range from 320.00 to 538.00
CAUTION: these are just averages; they include both equipment and labor (and profit for the contractor). It doesn’t have such things as electrical wiring upgrades or ductwork repairs/additions if needed. And don’t forget that a new air conditioner is going to need a new filter as well. As I said, this is a ballpark figure.
To learn more about how much it costs to install an AC unit, check out this article from One Project Closer: How Much Does It Cost To Install A Central Air Conditioner?
If you’re looking for a price comparison of central air installation costs in your state, then head on to HomeAdvisor and search their directory of contractors offering HVAC services: Local Costs For AC Installation. This page has the average home AC installation cost ranges for each state, so you should be able to get a decent idea of what it will cost by choosing your state and entering the number of rooms the system will serve (remember, if installing central air in a two-story home then figure your costs on both floors).
Depending upon the size of your home and how much ductwork is needed, you can usually plan on $3,000 to $8,000 for a completely new air conditioning installation. But as I said before, this will vary greatly depending on many factors: contractor fees, equipment cost/size/BTUs, geographical region (which determines labor rates), etc.