How much does it cost to install air conditioning?

Please note that the price information in this article was based on data from 2018 and may now be outdated.

Your air conditioning installation can cost anywhere from $600 to over $5000. You will pay your installer anywhere between $70 and $90 per hour, and the rest will go to your choice and number of air conditioners.

As a guide, these are the current prices of Harvey Norman air conditioners:

Don’t forget to add the price of air con installation to those prices, using quotes you get from Service Seeking certified air conditioning installers.

Your installation costs depend on different factors that involve your home, your air conditioner and the installer who does the work for you.

Furthermore, you can break down these costs even further. In that way, you will have a much clearer picture of what you are paying for and if there is any room for saving money on air conditioning installation.

While saving money is a good incentive, you also need to know that compromising on quality probably won’t save you money in the long run.

After all, if you have an air-con system that doesn’t really regulate the room temperature that well, does it even matter that it didn’t cost you much?

How to Find a Reliable Air Conditioning Installer?

A reliable air conditioning installer is a person who holds a certification issued by the Australian Refrigeration Council. If installing your AC means that you need to make some changes to your home electrical grid, you will also need a certified electrician to do it.

Your contractors also need to have fair quotes and good reviews, and they need to be able to answer your questions and concerns. They should elaborate on their costs of work and give you good estimates about what they expect to be the bottom line price.

The best option would be to have people send you their quotes, and you can see what their other customers think about the work they performed. Therefore, it is advisable to get your quotes in advance and discuss the type of work you need with the experts.

Go to the Service Seeking website to get many quotes for your air conditioner installation. In this way, you will receive quotes, estimates and answers from many air conditioner installers who would like to do the work on your home. You can even talk to them online and choose the contractor that you trust will do the best work.

Keep in mind that the quote you get will be based on the materials your contractors need to use but also the distance they need to travel to your home. Moreover, different states in Australia usually have different hourly prices for air con installation. They can go from under $70 per hour in Victoria to $90 in South Australia.

To get a more precise quote and plan your expenses accordingly, you will have to give your contractor some information about your home, and you will have to choose the most suitable air conditioning system.

Let’s start with your home.

How Do You Size an Air Conditioner for Your Home?

There are several things about your home that you need to take into account when you want to determine the size of your air con and how many of them you need. These include:

• The surface and the height of your rooms.
• Whether you have an open floor layout or not.
• The quality of your insulation.
• The position of your home.
• The number and the size of windows.

These factors are essential when calculating your air-con costs. The more complicated installation process and more air conditioners also mean more work for your installer.

This increases the number of working hours they need and possibly, even the price of their work. The bottom line is that it can add up to a large sum in the end.

How to Calculate the Surface of Your Room for Air Conditioning?

Obviously, the larger the room is, the more power to regulate the temperature in it is needed. When calculating the size of your room, don’t forget to take the room height into consideration.

Screenshot from Energy Models

There is much more air to be warmed up or cooled down if you have a room that is 9 square metres in size, with 3 metres in height. That’s 27 square metres that needs to be cooled. But, try to cool that same room, but with a height of 4 metres and suddenly, you need to cool down 36 square metres of space. It's not the same thing, is it?

Your Home Layout

The way your home is designed will influence the number and the position of the air con systems you choose. Obviously, it is much easier to regulate the temperature in closed spaces than in open-floor homes with large volumes.

On the other hand, it is not always easy to find the perfect spot for your cooling system. Sometimes, there are unexpected barriers for the piping, or the electrical wires are too far away, and there is no power for the system to work. With the right contractor, you will be able to get accurate estimates.

More complicated installation that requires more people to be involved and more equipment to be used will be more expensive. If the space is such that the equipment cannot be brought in and the installer needs to improvise – you can expect that to cost extra, also.

Your Windows and Your Insulation

Your window orientation is directly connected to your air conditioning system. If most of your windows are big and they are oriented to the South, you will need more power to keep that room cooled down to a certain temperature. This can influence the cost of your air-con and, sometimes, even the number of devices you need to be installed.

Additionally, if most of your walls are in glass, it may be difficult to install a split system because there may not be enough room for it to be attached. This can complicate the installation and then, you guessed it, increase the price.

Also, externally shaded windows will provide better insulation than the internally shaded windows. This is due to better insulation.

Windows are not the only way insulation influences your costs. A more powerful air conditioning is needed when you don’t have good wall, floor and/or roof insulation. The temperature will be harder to maintain if the outside temperature easily breaks through the insulation.

Image from Your Home

Try to minimise the effects of the direct sun by passive cooling. This will reduce the power needed to cool down your home, and that means your air conditioner can be cheaper.

You will find a great variety of air conditioners on Harvey Norman air conditioners, but you need to know what you are looking for. There are ducted systems, central systems and split systems. There is also a portable cooling system, but that is less likely to be your choice for an entire home.

A certified professional will help you make all these calculations before choosing your air conditioning system.

Get in touch with the best available air conditioning experts by asking for a quote at Service Seeking. That is your quickest and most reliable way to get the job done.