Why Do Air Conditioning Systems Keep Getting More Expensive?

1. Manufacturers raise prices across the board every year. With costs going up every year on material for everything from copper to steel and utilities rising for everyone including manufacturers. The cost to make an air conditioner goes up every year. And, of course they raise the selling price accordingly every year.
2. EPA Has set new federal regulations. With new EPA laws that deem the regular refrigerant or “freon” harmful to the ozone. They have restricted the use of R-22 forcing the manufacturers to spend millions of research dollars redesigning their systems to use a different type of refrigerant R-410A. This is the second time this happened, once before it happened to R-12 in cars.
3. The cost of Gas and Insurance Rises. With raising Insurance costs and Gas prices local air conditioning companies are spending more to get to your home and more on insurance to be able to work on your home.
4. The cost of Installation Keeps going up. Again with rising material costs and labor rates including workman comp some companies are spending thousands of dollars a month in just insurance and quadruple that on Labor. The average air conditioning company could be spending $50,000 a month in overhead costs, uniforms, cell phones, office rent utility bills. All this just to be able to work on your home.
5. Demand for a better service by consumers. With raising demands for quality services like 24 hour on call service and longer warranties. Companies are spending even more on labor due to paying technicians overtime and late night hazard pay. It’s so much more than just buying an air conditioner and slapping it in. Typically you can take the cost of the air conditioner and times it by 2.5 and that is the actual cost to a licensed law abiding air conditioning company to install it for your home. after they pay everything mentioned above.

6. Obamacare. With the new laws included in Obamacare companies have now seen health insurance costs go drastically. the average employee has kids and a wife so insurance for 1 employee can be as high as $700 now times that by 40 and thats $28,000 a month going out and unfortunately theres nothing we can do about it except pay and pass the costs on to the price book. Either that, break the law or go out of business.

Long story short is the cost to do business and be able to offer a warranty has dramatically skyrocketed in the last few years and unfortunately it will keep going up every February. So if your in the market to buy a new ac unit. Do it before February 1st or pay more.