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An Arlington house keeping its gas furnace pays $5,942 to $14,450 installed for a new central AC. Same type, size and spot needs no permit.
Price range
$5,942-$14,450
8yrs @ 7.99%
$84/mo
15yrs @ 9.99%
$64/mo
Monthly figures on the starting price, the whole price financed, on approved credit. The lender sets the final terms. How financing works
Get your price in writing
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5.0 stars across 1,131 reviews
One of our HVAC technicians moving a new condenser up a driveway, the van behind him.
Licensed and insuredVirginia Class A contractor #2705192276
24/7 emergency serviceOften same-day, and we will tell you honestly when we can get there.
Our own HVAC installersA dedicated heating and cooling team, separate from our plumbers
Price in writing firstYou see every option priced before anything is ordered
What it costs
The same price book our estimator runs on, for a central air conditioner on its own, keeping the furnace you have. A single-stage unit on a small house sits near the bottom; a variable-speed one on a big house, near the top.
A central air conditioner alone, keeping your furnace, installed
$5,942 to $14,450
or $99/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
An air conditioner and furnace together, installed
$8,898 to $23,000
or $148/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
A heat pump in the AC’s place, installed
$8,499 to $21,650
or $142/mo at 0% APR for 60 months
Diagnostic visit, if it may be worth fixing
$99
Monthly figures: 60mo @ 0% APR on each starting price, the whole price financed, on approved credit. Longer plans lower the payment and cost more in total. The lender sets the final terms. How financing works
The HVAC replacement cost estimator narrows it to your house. Then a tech measures, and you get the installed price in writing before anything is ordered.
With Comfort+ membership at $199 a year, the diagnostic visit is included, and half of each repair bill is banked toward replacing that system, up to $1,500.
What’s different in Arlington
Arlington’s typical owner home went up in 1960, and a third of all its homes are older than that. Houses in Maywood, Ashton Heights, Lyon Park or Cherrydale were built long before central air, so the cooling came later and went where it fit: a coil on the basement furnace for the main floors, and often a separate attic air handler for a Cape Cod’s upstairs bedrooms. That makes AC replacement here two jobs. The basement one is an outdoor unit and a coil on the gas furnace; the attic one swaps a coil, or a whole air handler, under a hot roof.
Then the County’s paperwork, which runs differently from Fairfax’s. Arlington wants no permit to replace an air conditioner with the same type, size and location, since the AC itself doesn’t burn gas. Change any of the three, say a bigger unit, a pad across the yard, or a heat pump where the AC was, and it falls under the mechanical permit, which covers adding, removing or relocating heating and cooling equipment. Either way, the County’s Zoning office approves where the outdoor unit stands. So the size question and the permit question are one question here: ask whether the unit you’re quoted matches the old one, and if it doesn’t, who files.
Gas heats the AC-only houses. Fairlington is the big exception: its 3,449 garden apartments and townhouses got central heat and air conditioning heat pumps when they were sold as condos between 1972 and 1977, so a worn unit there is a heat pump replacement at $8,499 to $21,650, not an AC. More than half of Arlington’s homes sit in buildings of ten units or more, and in the towers by the Metro the cooling is often a fan coil or a water-source heat pump on a loop the building runs, with no outdoor unit of yours anywhere. Those jobs start at the management office.
In Maywood, Buckingham Village and Colonial Village, the County’s local historic districts, an exterior alteration needs a certificate of appropriateness from the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board, while repairs and same-material replacements are exempt. Putting the new condenser back on the old pad is the straightforward case; a new spot, or copper run up a front wall, is worth asking about first. Renters hold 58.7 percent of Arlington’s occupied homes. We do more work through landlords and property managers in Arlington than in almost any other town, so condo buildings, tenant scheduling and access rules are routine for us there.
By the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
When it’s time
About one Arlington home in seven went up between 2000 and 2009, and where one still runs the outdoor unit it came with, that condenser is close to twenty. A capacitor one summer and a fan motor the next is how they wind down, and a unit that age most likely holds R-22, whose production ended in 2020. Once the repair bills stack up, price the new AC beside the next one.
An air conditioner put in before 2010 most likely holds R-22, which hasn’t been made since 2020. A leak on one of those usually ends the repair road.
The new coil sits on the furnace and uses its blower. When the furnace is the same age, replacing both usually costs less than two jobs a few years apart: $8,898 to $23,000 for the pair.
Permits, locally
Replacing a furnace or air conditioner with the same type, size and location needs no Arlington permit unless it burns gas, which takes a plumbing and gas permit. With no permit, Zoning still approves where any outdoor equipment goes. Source.
Our Virginia Class A contractor license, 2705192276, is on the side of the van.
Choosing who installs it
Questions to ask anybody who quotes you, us included.
When an Arlington AC swap turns into permit work, the County won’t issue an owner permit to an LLC unless the home is an existing rental and you can prove it, and an owner can hold a residential permit for only one address in two years. Arlington strongly suggests the contractor doing the work hold the permit. Ask the installer to pull it in their name.
Ask how they picked the size. Copying the old nameplate repeats whatever was guessed when the house was built.
The outdoor unit and the coil on the furnace are rated as a pair. Ask whether the quote replaces both, and what happens to the line set.
A good company puts the repair price next to the replacement range and lets you choose. Already holding somebody’s big number? Take the free second opinion first.
Two of our crew going over a work order before the day's calls.
From our Google reviews
5.0 stars across 1,131 reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Alex was very professional and the 2 technicians Oscar, and Derek was fast and efficient. They replace my A/C unit within the next day
Where we work
Next door to Arlington: Falls Church, Alexandria, Dunn Loring, Annandale and McLean.
Questions
You could, but that heat pump is also your heat. Fairlington’s central systems have been heat pumps since the 1970s condo conversion, so a cooling-only unit in its place would take the winter heating with it. Price a heat pump for heat pump replacement at $8,499 to $21,650 instead, and check the association’s documents for where the outdoor half may stand.
Often both, priced separately. The basement system is usually a coil on the gas furnace with an outdoor unit, the classic AC-only swap at $5,942 to $14,450. The attic one cools the upstairs bedrooms with an air handler of its own, so replacing it means the outdoor unit plus the coil or air handler up there. That one works in the worst heat, and it’s often first to go.
$5,942 to $14,450 installed for a central air conditioner on its own, keeping the furnace you have; size and efficiency set where yours lands. An AC and furnace together run $8,898 to $23,000. The HVAC replacement cost estimator gives your house its own number.
It’s worth pricing. A heat pump cools exactly like an AC and also heats on mild days, so with your gas furnace it becomes dual fuel. A heat pump system runs $8,499 to $21,650 installed, and we’ll price it both ways.
Ready when you are
Call, or send the form at the top. A tech measures the house and puts the installed price in writing before anything is ordered, and if the old AC is worth fixing, you’ll hear that first.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing
4230 Lafayette Center Dr N, Chantilly, VA 20151
44679 Endicott Dr, Suite 211, Ashburn, VA 20147
Virginia Class A contractor license #2705192276
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Arlington and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 1,131 reviews on Google, Angi, Yelp, the BBB and Facebook. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
From SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing in Chantilly. Housing figures are the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024, for each place named; permit, water and sewer facts link to each office’s own page and were checked in September and October 2026.