Open 24/7 for emergencies
AC replacement in Alexandria runs $5,942 to $14,450 installed, City side or county side, and your furnace stays where it is.
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 Alexandria
Find out which side of the line your street is on first, because it changes the paperwork more than the equipment. Inside the City of Alexandria the state rule applies: a like-for-like electric air conditioner in a house doesn’t need a permit. Cross into Fairfax County and the same swap becomes mechanical permit work, with the county’s A2L system certification attached, since today’s condensers come charged with one of those refrigerants. The 22311 ZIP is split between the two, so your mailing address won’t settle it.
Old Town and Parker-Gray add a second question: who can see the condenser. A new outdoor unit in view of a street goes to the Board of Architectural Review; one on the ground in a side or rear yard that barely shows can get staff approval, screened if it shows. Parker-Gray’s residential guide leaves a ground unit at the side or back out of review entirely. On a roof, anywhere in the City, the equipment has to be hidden by, or built of, materials like the building’s walls.
In the City, the condenser often isn’t yours alone to decide about. More than half the City’s homes are in condo and apartment buildings, and the City tells condo owners their improvements have to follow the association’s governing documents, which say whose outdoor unit it is and where a new one may sit: a pad out back, a balcony, the roof. The owner homes run old too. About six in ten went up before 1980, the median in 1970, so a rowhouse AC is often its second or third.
On the Fairfax County side, a new AC by itself is the everyday job. About six in ten owners there heat with gas, and in Kingstowne, Rose Hill, Fort Hunt and Hayfield the coil sits on a gas furnace in a basement or closet. Kingstowne’s median owner home dates from 1994 and Franconia’s from 1986, both about half townhouses, so the condenser sits on a small pad a few feet from the neighbor’s. Franconia and Woodlawn lean electric, and the unit out back there is more likely a heat pump, a different job at $8,499 to $21,650.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
Census figures for the owner-occupied homes in each place, and what that usually means for the AC that’s there now.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | The AC there now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Alexandria | 1970 | condo and apartment buildings, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | Condo and apartment buildings: compact condensers on shared pads and roofs. |
| Rose Hill | 1969 | single-family houses, about 7 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Gas furnaces with central air, often on the second or third AC. |
| Franconia | 1986 | townhouses, about 5 in 10 | electricity, about 6 in 10 | Mostly electric heat, so the cooling is usually a heat pump. |
| Fort Hunt | 1963 | single-family houses, nearly all | gas, about 8 in 10 | Gas furnaces with central air, often on the second or third AC. |
| Kingstowne | 1994 | townhouses, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Townhouse condensers in tight side yards and on decks. |
| Woodlawn | 1976 | townhouses, about 4 in 10 | electricity, about 6 in 10 | Mostly electric heat, so the cooling is usually a heat pump. |
| Lincolnia | 1982 | single-family houses, about 4 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | 1980s and 90s houses, many on their second air conditioner. |
| Mount Vernon | 1967 | single-family houses, about 7 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Gas furnaces with central air, often on the second or third AC. |
By the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
When it’s time
On a City rowhouse roof, a condenser boxed in tight by its screen can end up pulling in its own hot exhaust, and an aging one trips off when the afternoon peaks. If it’s still on R-22, which hasn’t been made since 2020, another recharge is a poor bet, and the replacement is the time to rebuild the screen.
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
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.
In Alexandria that answer changes the permit, the inspector and, on the county side, the A2L certification the installer files. A quote that never names the office it’s headed to hasn’t checked. In Old Town or Parker-Gray, also ask whether the new condenser goes to the Board of Architectural Review, and who designs the screen.
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.
Hard to find service like this in Alexandria.
…we had swift and professional responses for multiple plumbing and HVAC needs in our Rosemont Alexandria condo
On spec and on price for our A/C replacement. Showed up on time and all went as promised
Where we work
Next door to Alexandria: Arlington, Springfield, Falls Church, Annandale and Fort Belvoir.
Questions
Swapped like for like in a house, no. The City follows the state rule, which covers gas and oil appliances and leaves an electric air conditioner out. Replace the gas furnace on the same visit and that half goes through the City’s permit office. The Board of Architectural Review is a separate question, settled by what shows from the street.
The association, mostly. Your condo documents say whether the condenser on the pad, the balcony or the roof belongs to you or to the building, and where a replacement may sit. If it’s yours, we replace it and the coil inside as a matched pair, and the management office settles how the new unit gets up there.
$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 Alexandria 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.