AC Installation in Fort Morgan, CO
A new air conditioner in Fort Morgan will run from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Morgan County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Three hard months of heat, and hail in between
Fort Morgan asks a new air conditioner to work hard for a short stretch. June through August, summer afternoons average 88°F, and the unit outside has to keep up on the hottest days of that run. The rest of the year it sits idle, but those three months are the ones that matter.
Morgan County has also seen 103 hail events and 55 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 4 inches recorded. An outdoor unit lives outside through all of that, so the condenser coil and cabinet take the exposure. Any new central air conditioner installed today also has to meet the federal efficiency minimum of 13.4 SEER2, which sets the baseline for how little energy it can use to do the job.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 103 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 Morgan County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Morgan County home, from EIA household energy data, Colorado fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage of your house alone. A contractor looks at your insulation, your windows, how many rooms face the afternoon sun, and the layout of your ducts before landing on a number. An oversized unit cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, so the house feels damp. Too small, and it runs nonstop on the hot afternoons here and still can't keep up. Have a contractor measure your house rather than guess from a chart.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases the outdoor unit and the indoor coil need to match, so swapping only the condenser can leave you with a system that runs poorly or wears out early. The two are matched at the factory for a reason, refrigerant flow and airflow both depend on it. If your indoor coil and furnace or air handler are old too, replacing the whole system at once is often worth considering rather than replacing pieces separately over time. A contractor can check the age and condition of what you have and tell you whether the indoor coil is worth keeping.
- Do HVAC contractors in Fort Morgan need a state license to work on my home?
- Ask to see a contractor's license number before any work starts, and check that it is current. A licensed contractor also carries the insurance that protects you if something goes wrong during the install. If you are not sure a contractor is licensed, you can ask them directly and confirm it before signing anything.