Open 24/7 for emergencies
A new central AC for a Stafford house heated by gas or propane costs $5,942 to $14,450 installed, and the furnace isn’t touched.
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
Send this and the office calls or texts you back to set a time.
We’ll call or text this number about your request. By sending it you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Rather talk now? (703) 997-9757
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 Stafford
Stafford is heat pump country first. Electricity heats 13,649 of the 24,011 owner homes across 22554 and 22556, and in Aquia Harbour almost every owner does, so most outdoor units here heat as well as cool and get replaced as heat pumps. That leaves the air conditioner by itself to the fuel-burning minority: roughly 30 percent of owners on gas and 8 percent on propane, whose furnaces carry a coil fed by a separate condenser.
Those gas houses gather around the courthouse. In the Stafford Courthouse Census place, gas is the most common heat among owners and the typical owner home went up in 2005; the County’s plan names Austin Ridge and Embrey Mill along the Courthouse Road corridor. 22554 alone has 3,592 owner homes from the 2000s. Those builder condensers are near twenty, and many of them run R-22.
The cooling side earns its keep here. Stafford sits between two NOAA stations: Fredericksburg, about 10 miles south-southwest, logs 40.7 afternoons a year at 90 or hotter, and the Quantico air station, 8 miles northeast, averages July nights near 71. That’s a lot of evenings with the compressor still running, and on a condenser near twenty, a failed compressor usually tips it toward replacement.
Wind is the other wear. The August 12, 2018 storm put more than 50 trees down between Stafford and Falmouth, some onto houses in Grafton Village, and the July 9, 2025 storm downed numerous trees across Stafford. A limb hanging over the old pad is a reason to move the new condenser. The County’s permit FAQ lets an air conditioner be traded without a permit only for a match in type and size on the same spot, so a move goes through the Building Division on Courthouse Road.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aquia Harbour | 1984 | single-family houses, nearly all | electricity, nearly all | Mostly electric heat, so the cooling is usually a heat pump. |
| Stafford Courthouse | 2005 | single-family houses, about 4 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | Builder air conditioners, many now near twenty years old. |
By the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
ZIPs 22554 and 22556 as a whole: every Stafford address. The Census places in the table hold about one in seven of these homes.
When it’s time
An outdoor unit that never runs from November to April is an air conditioner, not a heat pump, and in Stafford that usually means a gas or propane furnace inside. A mid-2000s date on its plate puts it near the end. Price the new AC now, in the cool months, while the furnace carries the house.
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.
A house from the 2000s often cools with the condenser it was built with. Past fifteen years, compressors and fan motors start to go, one after another.
Choosing who installs it
Questions to ask anybody who quotes you, us included.
Out in 22556 the new coil sits on a propane furnace, and that furnace’s age decides whether the AC alone makes sense. Ask them to read its plate. A tired furnace under a brand-new coil means opening that closet again soon; one from the last decade is a fine base.
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.
Tyler from SwiftPro is very knowledgeable and professional on HVAC. Tech Edis and Rony are very professional and done good job to install AC
Where we work
Next door to Stafford: Fredericksburg, Quantico, Triangle, Dumfries and Midland.
Questions
Mostly it’s about room. Behind a courthouse-area townhouse, the outdoor unit shares a strip of ground with the neighbor’s, and any replacement has to fit there with the airflow clearance the manufacturer lists. Staying on that same spot also keeps the job inside the County’s no-permit trade, provided type and size match.
Almost certainly not. The Census finds no Aquia Harbour owner on natural gas, so what sits outside there is in practice a heat pump, and replacing it means a heat pump system at $8,499 to $21,650. With houses from a 1984 median, the $99 diagnostic visit tells you first whether this one is worth fixing.
$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 Stafford 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.