How we price AC replacements
Replacing an air conditioner is one of the bigger checks you'll write as a homeowner. You shouldn't have to wait until someone is sitting in your living room to learn what a replacement usually costs.
So here's our own history — real completed jobs from our records, not estimates, not a national average. It's the same straight answer we'd give you at the kitchen table: here's what our own completed jobs have cost.
For single whole-home ducted systems replaced over the last 12 months, the midpoint was about $9,300, and half landed between roughly $8,300 and $11,500.
A quarter of those homes paid less than $8,300. A quarter paid more than $11,500. Both of those quarters are real houses, and the reasons are right below.
Why the range is that wide
The spread isn't us being cagey. It's the difference between two houses.
Size. A two-bedroom bungalow and a four-bedroom with a bonus room over the garage don't take the same equipment, and equipment is the largest line on the invoice.
Efficiency. A straightforward single-stage system and a high-efficiency variable-speed system are different products at different prices, with different power bills afterward. The choice is a trade-off, and the power bill is only part of it. In Florida, a system that chases temperature and nothing else can leave a house that reads cool on the thermostat and still feels clammy; better equipment tends to run longer and gentler, pulling humidity out while it does, and that is most of what "comfortable" actually means down here. How much of it you'd feel depends on the house — the ductwork you already have, the insulation over your head, which way the glass faces, and which rooms you actually live in. How long you plan to stay is one input in that decision, not the one that settles it.
What's behind the walls. Attic air handlers, tight closets, and second-floor installations take longer. Some homes need electrical work, a new pad, a new line set, or a duct connection rebuilt because it was already failing. We'd rather find that on the estimate than on installation day.
Permits. When a permit is required, it's included and the work is inspected.
A phone conversation can narrow the range, but an on-site look is what lets us give you a real price.
Prices have gone up. Here's the size of it.
Our own records show an increase, so here it is. Same cohort, measured the same way, three years running:
| Twelve months ending | Midpoint |
|---|---|
| 2 September 2024 | $8,400 |
| 2 September 2025 | $9,000 |
| 2 September 2026 | $9,300 |
About 10% over two years for the same kind of job. If a replacement is somewhere on your horizon rather than on your calendar, that's the number to plan around.
What's not on this page
No "starting at" price. A starting-at price describes a best-case job. It may have very little to do with your house.
No repair prices. This page is about replacements. Repairs work differently — some are billed time and materials, which we generally prefer because you pay for the work that was actually needed, and some are flat rate. Either way, you approve the scope and billing basis before work begins.
No push to replace. A system that can be repaired usually should be. If we look at yours and repair is the better call, we'll say so.
How we calculated this
Methodology — figures current as of 2 September 2026.
These come from Air & Energy's own completed-job records in ServiceTitan, our job-management system. They're what customers were invoiced, not what we estimated.
The cohort. Residential air conditioning replacements completed between 2 September 2025 and 2 September 2026 where exactly one whole-home ducted system was replaced. That's 462 jobs.
"Midpoint" means the median — half cost more, half cost less. We use the median rather than the average because a handful of very large jobs drag an average upward until it describes nobody. "Half landed between" is the middle 50%, from the 25th to the 75th percentile. The exact figures are $8,350, $9,254 and $11,520; the sentence above rounds them for readability.
What's excluded. Commercial work. Homes where two or more systems went in at once — that roughly doubles the total and would stretch the range past the point of being useful. Ductless mini-splits, which are a smaller and considerably less expensive job; blending them in would misdescribe both. Duct-only replacements, warranty work, and no-charge visits. And 29 jobs, about 5%, whose invoice detail was incomplete in our records.
What's included. The full invoiced amount for the replacement, counted across the whole project — permit, electrical and duct work billed as part of the same job included.
The table above applies this same definition to the two preceding twelve-month periods.
These are historical figures, not a quote. Your house isn't the median house. The only way to know your number is to have someone look at it and put it in writing.
We started on Anna Maria Island in 1983 and we've been cooling houses around here ever since — long enough to have opinions about attics. If you'd like a number for your own house instead of a median, we'll come out, look at what you actually have, and put the price in writing before anything is scheduled. No obligation. Take the proposal, think it over, and call us when you're ready.