AC size and cost for a 2,000 square foot home in Florida

What it costs

System	Published range, installed	Average
Central AC	$5,800 to $14,400	$8,750
Heat pump	$5,000 to $15,000	$8,350
Ductless mini split	$4,577 to $8,328	$6,357

National figures from Fixr, not local averages and not our quote.

About 95% of Cape Coral homes heat with electricity, so many replacement quotes here are for a heat pump rather than straight AC with electric heat strips. Ask for both if you are not sure which you have.

Inside those ranges, the price mostly follows the rest of the job: whether the air handler is replaced too, the SEER2 rating, whether ducts need work, the stand or pad, the permit, and how hard the air handler is to reach. Quotes on the same house can differ by thousands for those reasons. Our quote guide lists what each bid should itemize so you can compare them line by line.

Tons vs a load calculation

AC size is measured in tons. One ton is 12,000 Btu per hour of cooling. Rules of thumb that convert square feet to tons are everywhere, including This Old House, and they are a fine way to check whether a quote is in the right neighborhood. They are not a way to size the system.

The DOE says size should come from a load calculation, the Manual J method, which works out how much heat actually gets into that particular house. Two 2,000 square foot houses on the same Cape Coral street can need different sizes. Ask the company whether they did a load calculation and ask to see it. If the answer is "your old one was 4 tons so the new one is 4 tons", that is a guess, and the old one may have been wrong too.

Why bigger is not better here

An oversized AC cools the house fast and shuts off. That sounds good. The problem is moisture. An AC removes water from the air while it runs, and it needs a long enough run for the coil to get cold and drain. A system that short cycles cools the air without drying it, so the house reads 76F on the thermostat and still feels damp. The DOE says oversizing reduces dehumidification.

That matters a lot in Cape Coral. The average dew point here in July and August is around 75F, and in recent years about 49 days a year have had a mean dew point of 75F or higher, up from 22 in 1976 to 1990. If your house feels clammy and smells musty, an oversized system is one of the first things to rule out. See our humidity and mold smell page.

An undersized system has the opposite problem: it runs all afternoon in August and still loses ground. With 145 days a year at 90F or hotter in 2016 to 2025, that is a lot of afternoons.

Days per year with an average dew point of 75°F or higher

What changes the load in a Southwest Florida house

• Ducts in the attic. Most Cape Coral homes are single story on a slab, with the ducts running through an attic that gets much hotter than outside on a summer afternoon. Leaky or poorly insulated ducts add a lot of load.
• Windows. West- and south-facing glass, sliders to the lanai, and older single-pane windows all add heat.
• The lanai. A screened lanai shades the walls and sliders behind it. An enclosed lanai that has been converted into living space adds square footage the original system was never sized for.
• Shade. A house with mature trees on the west side and one on an open lot facing a canal get very different afternoon sun.
• Insulation and roof. Attic insulation depth and roof color both matter, which is why a load calculation asks about them.
• Age of the house. About 16% of Cape Coral homes were built before 1980 and 50% in 2000 or later. Newer homes were built to newer energy codes.

Before you sign

1. Ask for the load calculation, or at least the inputs they used.
2. Get the tonnage, SEER2 rating and refrigerant in writing. New split systems in Florida must meet at least 14.3 SEER2 under 45,000 Btu per hour.
3. Ask whether the price includes the air handler, the Cape Coral change out permit, disposal and warranty registration.
4. Check the license on MyFloridaLicense.com. Our license guide shows how.

If you are on FPL in Fort Myers, ask whether the new system qualifies for FPL's $200 instant credit. Cape Coral is LCEC territory. More on that in our AC bill guide. For replacement in general, see AC replacement in Cape Coral.