The best thing to do when you’re furnace, air conditioner or outdoor HVAC unit aren’t working properly is to call a certified HVAC technician to come and take a look.
Diagnosing the problem correctly is the first step towards finding a solution that puts you back in business and reduces your energy expenses.
How to Estimate AC Service Costs
You’ll actually want to contact a technician right away instead of “roughing it” for a few days (or a few weeks) since problems that start small have a way of ballooning into larger issues, or even the need for replacement parts or a brand-new unit.
The best case scenario that you’d encounter by postponing a service call would be lower home energy efficiency, and the worst case could be the release of harmful chemicals throughout your home if your air conditioner remains on the fritz and unattended to.
- Determine Who You’re Dealing With: The Experience Premium
The first way to ultimately determine the cost of a service call is to figure out how experienced the technician coming to your home really is.
Aside from the flat fee that technicians normally charge for showing up at your home, a lot of the service cost is related to the technician’s experience level and the HVAC company’s reputation and the degree of HVAC competitors in your area.
- Are You Dealing with an Emergency Service Call?
An emergency situation that needs to be dealt with right away – e.g., your home AC is spewing out noxious smells, yet you obviously still need cool air on the double – could end up costing you more.
Why? Because you’re essentially asking the technician to drop whatever he’s doing at that moment and head right over to your home for diagnostics and repair. A technician’s time is valuable and the hassle and expense of immediately servicing your home ultimately needs to be compensated.
- Holiday Service Calls and Weekends are Usually More
In the same way that you can expect to pay a slight premium for calling on an HVAC technician for an emergency, a service call during the weekend or off-hours could end up making your service call more expensive.
Conversely, though, you could well under up paying the low-average servicing fee of $75 if you have your technician drop by your home on a weekday for a quick job that doesn’t require calling in major parts and hours of strenuous labor.
- Are Labor and Parts Involved in Delivering the Fix?
Aside from a flat fee, you may also have to pay for parts and compensate the HVAC technician for his time spent diagnosing and fixing your home AC (i.e., the labor cost).
Generally speaking, diagnosing and repairing a refrigerant leak and a circuit board replacement are the most expensive servicing and labor costs while replacing a thermostat or capacitor are normally quick, easy and relatively inexpensive in terms of servicing, parts and labor.
In terms of some of the most popular replacement parts needed to get your home AC back into playing form, condensing fan motor replacements usually run between $100 and $200 whereas an AC refrigerant recharge might cost about $200.
- You’ll Probably Want Regular Maintenance and a Tuneup
Fortunately for homeowners, regular maintenance (at least once annually) and a tuneup (e.g., cleaning filters and refilling refrigerant) are two of the best ways to affordably maintain and increase the lifespan of your home’s AC.
A tuneup is incredibly economical for homeowners since these run about $100 or slightly less. If you have an emergency, though, you’ll want to contact us right away to schedule an appointment!