AC Installation in Grand Junction, CO
A new air conditioner in Grand Junction will run from July through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Mesa County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Two months of real heat, then storms the rest of the year
Grand Junction only needs cooling in July and August, but those afternoons average 83°F and the unit has to keep up every one of those days. A new system sized right for that stretch will do the job without straining through a season that never gets that long.
Mesa County has logged 152 damaging wind events and 14 hail events over the past ten years, with hailstones up to 1.5 inches. The condenser sits outside through all of that, so the cabinet and coil fins on a new install matter as much as the size of the unit. Any central air conditioner installed new today has to meet 13.4 SEER2, the federal efficiency minimum, so that baseline is already built into what you're offered.
- 2 months
- July through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 14 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
Going above the federal minimum saves little here, about $20 a year.
Estimates for a typical Mesa 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 depends on your home's square footage, insulation, window area, and layout, not on a simple chart. An undersized unit will run constantly and never quite cool the house. An oversized one cools the air fast but doesn't run long enough to pull humidity out, so the house feels clammy even at the right temperature. A contractor works this out with a load calculation on your specific home, and that number is worth more than any rule of thumb.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and outdoor unit are different ages, replacing only the outdoor unit can cause problems. The two are matched to work together, and pairing an old coil with a new condenser often means the system never reaches the efficiency or cooling capacity it's rated for. Since 2023, new outdoor units also have to meet a 13.4 SEER2 minimum, and an older coil may not be built to pair with that. A contractor can check whether your existing coil is a match before you decide.
- Do HVAC contractors in Grand Junction need a state license to work on my home?
- Ask to see a contractor's license before any work starts on your system. A licensed contractor has been through the training and inspection that licensing requires, and that license is your protection if something about the work needs to be corrected later.