AC Installation in Thornton, CO
A new air conditioner in Thornton will run from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Adams County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Three months of real heat, and hail to think about
Thornton asks a new air conditioner to work hard for a short stretch. June through August, summer afternoons average 87°F, and the unit outside has to keep up on the hottest days of that run.
That unit also sits outside through some rough weather. The area has logged 135 hail events and 85 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail as large as 2.75 inches. A new system installed since 2023 has to meet 13.4 SEER2, the federal efficiency minimum, but how well the cabinet and coil hold up outside matters just as much here.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 87°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 135 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 $40 a year to run in Adams County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Adams 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 a chart based on square footage. A contractor measures your windows, insulation, ceiling height, and how much sun your walls take on, then works out how many BTUs your house actually needs to cool. An oversized unit cycles on and off too fast and never pulls the moisture out of the air. An undersized one runs constantly and still can't keep up on the hottest afternoons here, when temperatures push past 87°F. Ask for a Manual J calculation. That's the standard, and any contractor sizing your system should be doing it.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and outdoor unit are different ages or different efficiency ratings, replacing just the outside unit usually causes problems. The two are matched at the factory to work together, and pairing a new condenser with an old coil can mean poor cooling and a shorter life for the new equipment. It also gets harder to find an old coil that matches a new condenser's refrigerant and airflow specs, since equipment changes year to year. A contractor can check your coil's condition and age against the new unit and tell you if a match-up will actually work here.
- Do HVAC contractors in Thornton need a state license to work on my home?
- Ask to see a contractor's license number before signing anything, and check that it's active before any work starts on your home. A licensed contractor also carries the insurance that protects you if something goes wrong during the install. If a contractor won't show you a license, that's reason enough to look elsewhere.