AC Repair in Somerset, KY
Air conditioners here run from June through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Pulaski County will get in touch.
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Four months of heat, hard on your AC
Somerset asks a lot of an air conditioner in a short stretch of time. From June through September your unit runs hard on afternoons that average 84°F, and it has to make up for that heat every single day of those four months.
That kind of steady demand wears on the capacitor and the condenser fan motor, the parts that keep the compressor starting and the outdoor unit cooling itself. When one of those weakens, you notice the air coming out warmer than it should, or the outdoor unit running but not keeping up. Pulaski County has also logged 167 damaging wind events and 26 hail events over the past ten years, with hail up to 2.5 inches. Wind can bend the thin fins on your outdoor coil, and hail that size can dent the cabinet or damage the fins outright, so it is worth a look outside after a bad storm.
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 84°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 26 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 167 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $30 a year off cooling for a typical Pulaski County home.
Estimates for a typical Pulaski County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Kentucky fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when a part like a capacitor or contactor has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the compressor has failed or the system uses R-22 refrigerant, which is no longer made.
Kentucky requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license comes from the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. That covers the business doing the work, not each repair it takes on.
For a repair like yours, that license is what stands behind the work. If the job means opening the refrigerant side of your air conditioner, the technician also needs EPA Section 608 certification, which is a federal requirement in every state, not something Kentucky adds on top. Between the two, you have a contractor the state has licensed and a technician certified to handle the refrigerant itself.
Sources: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission · Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter choking off airflow across the coil. When air can't move past the filter, the coil can ice up and what comes through the vents turns warm. Low refrigerant from a leak causes the same thing, and that's not something to top off yourself since it takes a licensed contractor to open that side of the system. If the outdoor unit is running but the air inside is weak or warm, get it looked at before the coil ices over completely.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Most of the time it's a clogged condensate drain line. Your AC pulls moisture out of the air as it cools, and that water is supposed to run out through a drain line to the outside. Algae and debris build up in that line over time and block it, so the water backs up and drips inside instead. A dirty filter can also cause this indirectly, by icing the coil, which then melts and overflows the drain pan when the system shuts off.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to cool and a few degrees below room temperature, and that the batteries aren't dead if it's a battery model. If the thermostat looks fine, check the breaker for the outdoor unit, since a tripped breaker will stop the whole system cold. With 167 damaging wind events recorded here over the past ten years, a breaker trip after a storm is worth ruling out before assuming something inside the unit has failed.