AC Installation in Warwick, RI
A new air conditioner in Warwick will run from July through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Kent County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Two months of real heat, that's what it needs to handle
Summer here doesn't drag on. Cooling season runs July through August, with afternoons averaging 80°F. A new system doesn't need to survive months of extreme heat, but it does need to keep up on the days that matter.
Any central air conditioner installed new has to meet 13.4 SEER2, the federal efficiency minimum. Beyond that baseline, what matters most is a unit sized right for your house, since a short cooling season doesn't give an oversized or undersized system much room to make up for a bad fit.
- 2 months
- July through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 80°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 5 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 Kent County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Kent County home, from EIA household energy data, Rhode Island fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Rhode Island requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Department of Labor and Training tests contractors before it licenses them, and it keeps a record of who holds one. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license that covers a furnace repair covers this installation.
For this job, the license tells you the state has checked this contractor's qualifications. Most cities and counties also require a permit from the local building office for an installation like this, with an inspection once the work is done, so check whether that applies in your part of Kent County.
Source: Rhode Island General Assembly
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- It depends on your square footage, your ceiling height, how much shade and window area you have, and how well your house holds cold air. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on home size alone. Two houses of the same square footage can need different sized units, so this is worth getting right before you buy anything. An undersized unit will run constantly without cooling the house, and an oversized one will cycle on and off too fast and leave the air feeling damp.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and outdoor unit are matched and both are in good shape, replacing just the outdoor unit can work. But the indoor coil has to be compatible with the new unit's refrigerant and capacity, and an old coil paired with a new condenser often means poor performance or a shorter life for the new part. A contractor can check the age and condition of your indoor coil and tell you whether it will work with what you are putting outside. Since new units built since 2023 have to meet a 13.4 SEER2 minimum, an older coil sized for a less efficient system is often the sticking point.
- Do HVAC contractors in Warwick need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Rhode Island requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued through the Department of Labor and Training. The license covers the contractor as a business, not each individual job. You will also need a permit from the local building office for the installation, along with an inspection once the work is finished.