HVAC Questions Marietta Homeowners Ask

Turn the cooling off and leave the fan on. A system running without cooling is usually frozen or out of charge. Continuing to run it can put additional strain on the compressor and make the problem worse. Let the coil thaw, then call 770.726.7407.

Shut the system off at the thermostat. Water at the air handler means the condensate is not draining, and in a Cobb County attic the next thing it reaches is your ceiling. Usually a plugged drain or a failed pump.

Dust burning off on the first cold night is normal and clears in fifteen minutes. Hot plastic or scorched wiring is not. That smell means something is running hot enough to break down its own insulation. Kill the breaker and call us.

Stop resetting it. The breaker is doing its job, usually against a failing capacitor or a compressor pulling too much current. Every reset sends locked-rotor current through it and turns a cheap electrical part into the most expensive one. Leave it off.

Ice is the symptom, not the problem. Restricted airflow or low charge makes the coil colder than it should be. Turn the cooling off, leave the fan running, let it thaw. Nobody can read pressures on a frozen system anyway.

Your system is hitting temperature before it has pulled the moisture out, which usually means it is oversized. Short bursts cool the air without drying it, so the house reads 74 and feels like 78. Longer, slower cycles feel better.

If the compressor runs and the registers are weak, the problem is indoors. Start with the filter, then a failing blower, a duct come apart in the attic, or a frozen coil. Weak everywhere means the blower. Weak in one room means that duct.

No. A bigger system cools faster and comforts worse. Capacity beyond what the house loses short cycles, so humidity stays up, temperatures swing, and the compressor wears out on start-ups rather than run hours. The fix is a measurement, not a bigger box.

Microbial growth on the coil, or standing water in the drain pan. A cooling coil is wet by design and a Georgia summer keeps it that way for months. Cleaning the coil and getting the condensate flowing stops it coming back.

No. Your system is legal, you can keep it, and you can have it repaired. The federal AIM Act changed what manufacturers may build, not what you may own. Anyone telling you your working air conditioner is illegal is selling something.

Yes, and this is the thing most homeowners have backwards. Servicing existing R-410A stays legal. Production steps down over years, so the price rises rather than the supply stopping. That changes the repair maths on an older system, not the legality.

The refrigerant most manufacturers moved to for new equipment, at a global warming potential of 466 against R-410A’s 2,088. It is roughly 69 percent R-32 and 31 percent R-1234yf, and it needs its own charging procedure and service tools. Ask which one your installer stocks.

It is classified A2L, mildly flammable, and it will not burn under conditions you can create by accident. Propane is A3, which is a different thing entirely. New equipment carries leak detection built to the current standard. Ask about A2L training.

If your system works, wait. If it is failing, refrigerant is not a reason to delay, because nothing better is coming behind it. The changeover shortage has passed. Decide on the condition of what you own, not on the calendar.

The steel wall between the burner flame and the air you breathe. A crack lets combustion gas cross it, so the furnace gets shut down rather than repaired. No smell proves it. Ask to see it and ask for the reading.

Probably not. A heat pump delivers air in the eighties and low nineties, warmer than your house and cooler than your hand. A furnace runs 120 to 140, which is why this feels wrong. Judge it on run time instead.

Electric backup heat. When a heat pump cannot keep up, resistance strips take over at roughly three times the cost, and one cold week carries a month’s bill. A hard overnight setback and a careless changeover point both make it worse.

Leave. Do not flip switches, do not hunt for the leak, do not call from inside. Get out, then call the gas utility and the fire department. This is the one thing on this page where we are not your first call.

Zoning divides the air you already have. If upstairs is starved because the duct cannot deliver, zoning hands you control over a shortage. Measure the airflow first, correct what is restricting it, then choose between zoning and a second system.

Smart thermostats are built around gas furnaces. Deep setbacks and fast recovery are exactly what trigger expensive backup heat on a heat pump. Usually the wiring cannot control the backup properly and the learning schedule is still on. Both are configuration.

Open registers only prove the last two feet are clear. In most Cobb County two-storeys the loss happens earlier: return air sized for a smaller house, supply duct crossing a 130-degree attic, or flex duct crushed above the ceiling. All three read at the return.

No. Closing registers raises duct pressure, so the blower works harder, more air escapes through leaks, and the coil can freeze. The idea works with water in a pipe, not with air. Rooms needing less air is a damper job.

Sealing first, then filtration. On 29 March 2026 the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma station recorded 14,801 grains per cubic metre, the highest in 35 years. A leaky return pulls attic air in behind the filter, so seal that first. Filters only clean air that reaches them.

It can hurt. Rating and thickness are different things. A four-inch media filter helps, because the surface area lets it filter hard without choking airflow. A one-inch filter with a high rating is the risky combination, and restricted airflow freezes coils.

Your air conditioner handles it while it runs. The gap is April, May and October, when the house is sticky but never hot enough for long cycles. Fix sizing and airflow first. A whole-house unit is for what that leaves.

April and May, our quietest months by a wide margin. Late October drops off a cliff and January through March fills with heating. Anything that can wait belongs in that window. Better a deal in April than a queue in July.

Usually scope, not equipment. Check the four things a cheap quote goes quiet about: whether the permit is pulled, whether the duct connections get rebuilt or reused, whether the line set is replaced, and whether the electrical and condensate reach current spec.

More than the brand on the box does. Much of the industry pays installers per job, which rewards finishing fast. Sealing ducts, verifying charge and measuring airflow take hours that never show on paperwork. Ask how long, and how many people.

Ask what they measured, and ask to see it. Sizing off the old unit or a rule of thumb per square foot carries forward the last install’s mistakes. Room by room takes half an hour. Ask all three contractors. A refusal tells you something too.

No. Ratings only hold for a matched pair, so you need model numbers for both units, the AHRI reference for that pair, the size in tons, and the warranty terms. Without those, the SEER2 figure may not apply to what arrives.

Model and serial numbers, the commissioning readings taken that day, proof the warranty is registered, and the permit record. The readings are what anyone working on it later uses to know what good looked like. Ask before final payment. Keep that page with your paperwork.

Ask for the list in three parts: unsafe or about to fail, cheaper now than later, and fine to leave. A leak or a failing capacitor goes now. Duct work usually waits. Nothing should happen before you say so. Ask which category each item sits in.

On a fifteen-year-old system, almost certainly, and anybody who says otherwise is not looking hard. Finding something and selling you something are two different acts. There is little money in maintenance done properly. What there is, is a system that lasts.

You get shown the problem before you get offered the fix, and a flat-rate price in writing before anyone picks up a tool. A failing part can be shown to you. If the reason cannot be demonstrated, ask why not.

Probably not on those grounds. A pet is not a diagnosis. Ultraviolet equipment keeps growth off a wet coil, which is a genuine Georgia problem, so the reason should be your coil or your drain pan, not your household. Ask what on the system it solves.

Sequence it. Most large jobs split into what has to happen now and what can wait for April, when it is quieter and cheaper. What we will not do is take a deposit and leave it half finished. Ask for staged prices.

Yes. A mechanical permit covers equipment changeouts and duct work, and it is pulled by a contractor holding a Georgia conditioned air licence. It buys a second set of eyes with no stake in the invoice, and a record when you sell.

The contractor, under their own licence. Being asked to pull it yourself puts the code responsibility on your name instead of theirs, and it tends to travel with the other omissions on this page. The licence number belongs on the quote.

It becomes your problem when you sell, and when a manufacturer asks questions about a warranty claim. It can be resolved after the fact with an inspection and whatever corrections it finds. Better to know which situation you are in.

Usually yes, because the equipment is generally indoors. The inspector checks the equipment, connections, electrical and venting against code, and against what the permit described. It is a short visit. Your contractor should schedule it and be there. Nobody mentioning it at all is the signal.

Not for equipment placed in service in 2026. The 25C credit ended for anything put to work after 31 December 2025. Placed in service means installed and running, not ordered or paid. A 2025 install is worth raising with your accountant.

It was true when it was written. Most figures still circulating add the expired federal credit to rebates that are income limited. The old stack was up to $2,000 on 25C plus a rebate. Ask which programme a number comes from.

The federally funded home energy rebates survived and are income limited, generally to households under about 150 percent of area median income. Status changes by state, and eligibility turns on household income rather than on the equipment. Ask your utility separately.

Not if your system is failing. Nothing before Congress restores 25C, and anything new would apply from passage rather than retroactively. Waiting suits a working system you were replacing on efficiency grounds. A failing one will not wait for legislation.