The Tallahassee station, as NOAA lists it
At Tallahassee, elevation 69 feet, NOAA's engineering weather data shows a 99% winter design temperature of 28°F and a 1% summer design temperature of 93°F, the latter with a mean coincident wet-bulb temperature of 76°F. For an average year at Tallahassee, NOAA tallies about 2,073 hours with a wet-bulb temperature above 73°F and about 3,899 hours above 67°F.
Before you start
Gather a flashlight, a filter in the correct size, a notebook and your phone for photos. Before you touch anything beyond the filter, turn the system off at the thermostat and pull or switch off the outdoor disconnect. Items tagged For a technician need a professional with gauges and meters; everything else is homeowner work from the ground.
Winter: heat checks
- On the first cold morning, run the heat and stay near a register for a few minutes. A brief dusty smell is common. An electrical or plastic smell means shut it off and call.
- Heat pump owners: glance at the outdoor unit during a cold spell. Frost that melts off during defrost, sometimes with a cloud of vapor rising from the cabinet, is expected. A solid block of ice that keeps growing calls for a technician.
- Notice how often the thermostat shows auxiliary or emergency heat. Jot down when it happens so a technician can tell whether the backup is coming on more than it should.
- Test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, especially if any appliance in the house burns gas.
- Change the filter and write the date on its frame.
- For a technician (gas furnace): burners, flame sensor, heat exchanger inspection, venting and a combustion check.
- For a technician (heat pump): reversing valve, defrost controls and the backup heat strips.
Spring: wake up the cooling side
- Install a fresh filter.
- Pull vines and weeds back from the outdoor unit, move anything stored beside it, and leave the open space its installation manual asks for.
- With power off at the disconnect, rinse the outdoor coil gently with a garden hose from the top down. Keep pressure washers away from the fins.
- Find the spot where the condensate line exits outdoors and make sure mulch, soil or a shrub is not blocking it.
- Ask a technician whether any cleaner is safe to put in your drain line, and how often.
- On a warm afternoon, switch to cooling and hold your hand at a supply register. Air that feels barely cooler than the room is worth a service call.
- For a technician: refrigerant charge, capacitor and contactor, coil and blower wheel cleaning, and a test of the float switch.
Summer: watch points
- Check the filter every month and replace it when it looks gray. Pets, remodeling dust and an open window near a dirt road all shorten its life.
- Find out where your secondary drain discharges; with an attic air handler it may be a short pipe poking out above a window or eave. If it starts dripping, the main line is clogged, and that calls for service even while the house stays comfortable.
- A sudden shutdown with standing water in the pan under the air handler usually means the float switch tripped as designed. Have the line cleared rather than jumpering the switch.
- Keep supply registers open and return grilles clear of furniture and curtains.
- Set a small hygrometer in a central room and note readings on afternoons when the house feels clammy.
- Ice forming on the larger copper line, registers blowing warm, a breaker that trips again after a reset, or a puddle by the indoor cabinet are all reasons to stop and call.
Before and after a storm
- Know where the outdoor disconnect and the air handler breaker are, so you can shut the system off quickly if power becomes unstable or water threatens the equipment.
- Move patio furniture, bins and other loose items away from the outdoor unit.
- After the storm, look before you switch back on: bent fins, a shifted pad, torn line-set insulation or debris inside the cabinet.
- Do not run a unit that sat in standing water or took a hit from debris until a technician has looked at it.
- Photograph any damage for your insurer before cleanup.
Fall: close out the cooling months
- Replace the filter.
- Rake leaves away from the base of the outdoor unit.
- If you can reach the attic safely, look for duct sections that are torn, crushed, sagging or disconnected, and note where they are.
- Switch to heat on a mild day so a problem shows up before you need it.
- Compare this year's power bills with last year's. A steady climb can point to dirty coils, a refrigerant leak or leaky ducts.
If a repair quote runs large
A big repair bill is a natural moment to price a replacement alongside it. Florida falls in the Department of Energy's hot-humid Southeast region. Split-system central air conditioners installed there on or after January 1, 2023 must carry a rating of at least 14.3 SEER2, or 13.8 SEER2 for units of 45,000 Btu/h and larger, and split-system heat pumps must meet 14.3 SEER2 and 7.5 HSPF2 nationwide.
Questions to put to anyone quoting a new system:
- Is a room-by-room load calculation part of the price, and do I get the report?
- Is each efficiency rating quoted for the matched condenser and coil you plan to install, with its AHRI reference?
- Are duct leakage testing and sealing included, and will the drain pan and float switch be replaced?
- What state license, if any, covers this work, and what is the number? Look that number up on DBPR's license search before you sign.
- Which permits does the job need, and who pulls them?
- Can you show proof of liability coverage and workers' compensation?
Keep a service record
One sheet of paper, kept in a sleeve on the inside of the air handler closet door, is enough. Write down the filter size, the date of every filter change, each service call with the technician's findings, refrigerant added, parts swapped and the model and serial numbers on both cabinets. With that history in hand, a technician diagnoses faster, and a warranty claim is easier to support.