Free checklist
AC replacement checklist
The questions that decide whether a new AC works better than the old one.
Written by HYRE HVAC Research Desk Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
The short version
This AC replacement checklist covers the decisions to settle before you sign: whether to replace at all, the size from a Manual J, a matched indoor coil, the refrigerant the new system uses, the state of your ducts, and which rebates need pre-approval. Get each answer in writing.
Why a separate checklist for replacement?
Replacing an AC is not the same as buying a first system. The house already has ducts, a line set, an indoor coil and an electrical circuit, and each may or may not suit the new unit. The questions below make each of those a written decision rather than an assumption.
Should you replace yet?
Compressor or coil failures late in life tip toward replacement.
New R-22 is no longer produced, which makes repairs harder to keep up.
Settle the scope
An oversized AC leaves air damp and short-cycles.
The rating applies to the matched pair on the AHRI certificate.
New equipment is moving to lower-GWP refrigerants under EPA rules.
A heat pump costs little more to cool and also heats. See heat pump vs AC.
DOE’s field review found duct leakage common.
Money and paperwork
Check the rebate finder before work starts.
It does not apply to systems placed in service after December 31, 2025.
Run the offer through the HVAC financing calculator.
Who registers, and the deadline.
On the day
Venting is prohibited; recovery needs certified technicians.
Charge and airflow readings in writing.
Refrigerant handling needs EPA Section 608 certification. Gas and line-voltage work belong to a licensed contractor.
Questions
Do I need to replace the indoor coil with my AC?
Can I keep my old line set?
Should I upsize when I replace?
Is now a good time to replace?
Written and audited by
HYRE HVAC Research Desk
Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a sales floor. We read the federal microdata file, the statute or the manufacturer data sheet ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify.
The counts below are generated from the published pages themselves, last counted October 26, 2026, and they are what we have actually published rather than what we intend to.
- 18
- studies published
- 15
- federal sources read and cited
- 15
- studies published with their full dataset as CSV
- 51
- jurisdictions reproduced against EIA’s own tables
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. Federal data comes from the agency that collects it, in the file that agency publishes. We do not cite an article that cites a source; we download the source and compute the figure ourselves.
- We validate against the agency before we publish. First, we use each federal microdata file to reproduce the agency’s own published tables. Our cooling research reproduces EIA’s state estimates and standard errors for all 51 jurisdictions. That check caught a variance formula that was off by a factor of four.
- Every estimate carries its uncertainty. These are survey figures, not counts. Standard errors are computed from the replicate weights the federal file supplies and printed beside the estimate. An estimate too imprecise to publish is reported as such rather than printed.
- Nothing is typed by hand. Prose, tables and charts all read from one dataset built by script, so a number in a sentence and the same number in the table below it cannot disagree.
- We publish the data, not just the conclusion. 15 of our 18 studies offer the full computed table as a CSV download on the page, so you can check the analysis or disagree with it. A study without a row-level dataset gets no download link and claims none in its structured data.
- We correct in public. Where we have published a figure wrongly we fix the figure, rewrite any analysis that rested on it rather than patching the number underneath it, and leave a dated correction note on the page.
- We do not install or sell HVAC equipment, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favorable mention. Nobody buys a position on this site.
Data as of Sources checked October 26, 2026. Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Sources & retrieval dates
Replacing your AC?
Tell us the job and your zip code. Contractor matching is still being built, so this is an inquiry, not a booking or a service call.
HyreHVAC is a publisher. We do not install, repair or inspect HVAC equipment and hold no contractor licence. Nothing here replaces an on-site diagnosis by a licensed contractor. Sources are cited with the date they were checked.