How to Find the Best Heating & Air Conditioning Installers in the Atlanta Area

So many options. You need a heating or air conditioner installer, but there are so many contractors to choose from.

You don’t want someone who just calls themselves a “professional contractor” and works from a single truck. And you certainly don’t want a contractor who’s in town one day and gone the next, leaving the “100% satisfaction guarantee” worthless.

So how do you find the best air conditioning and heating contractors in the Atlanta area?

We’ll give you the resources and information you need to:

1. Find a quality contractor
2. Make sure your installation is done right the first time.

• Use ACCA’s contractor finder
  Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) is a non-profit association that helps contractors stay up to date on HVAC best practices. So you want to find a contractor associated with the ACCA.
  
  You can do that using the ACCA’s professional contractor finder. Put in:
  • Your zip code
  • What you need done (air conditioning)
  • Your market segment (residential)

Now you’ve got a list of professional contractors who stay up to date on best practices!

• Ask the right questions
  Finding a good air conditioning and heating installer is like finding a good car: you need to ask the right questions.
  
  Here are the questions you need to ask potential installers (and how they should answer).

• Know what a quality installation looks like
  You don’t want a contractor that cuts corners with an installation.
  
  According to ENERGY STAR, the typical air conditioner/heat pump installation causes your system to waste 27% of the energy it uses. This is how:

Pie chart from Energystar.gov showing how a poor installation wastes energy

With this poor installation, you’re wasting 27 cents for every $1 you spend cooling your home. Put another way, for every $100 you spend on cooling, $27 is wasted.

To prevent this waste, you need to know what a quality heating or air conditioning installation looks like. Use the ACCA’s quality installation checklist to see if a contractor will install your air conditioner, furnace or heat pump by the books.

• Find those who offer flat-rate pricing
  “Wait, this is going to cost me HOW much?” That’s sticker shock; the shock you get when you see how much something costs after a job was completed.
  
  That’s why you need to find an installer that offers flat-rate/upfront pricing instead of charging by the hour. You’ll know how much the air conditioner installation costs before the contractor starts working.
  
  Flat-rate pricing also gives the contractor an incentive to do the job right the first time.
  
  Why?
  
  Because the more they need to come back and correct their mistakes, the more it costs them.
  
  That’s why only quality contractors offer flat-rate pricing.
  
  Coolray is your Atlanta-area home comfort expert with specialists in heating, air conditioning, electrical, air quality and plumbing. Have more questions? We’d be happy to help!