AC Installation & Replacement in Glendale

Many units here have a small closet furnace or electric baseboard heat and no obvious spot for a condenser. In those cases, the practical choices are a ductless mini-split with one or more indoor heads, a slim ducted air handler serving a short run of ductwork, or a replacement of an existing through-wall or packaged unit. Each has trade-offs in cost, noise and how evenly it cools.

Ductless systems are popular in apartments because the line set needs only a small hole, and a single outdoor unit can serve two or three rooms. They also heat efficiently, which matters if the unit currently relies on electric baseboard. Our ductless guide covers how they compare.

An interior condo with units above, below and beside it gains far less heat through its walls than a corner unit on the top floor with west windows. That spread is why we do not size from square footage. A Manual J load calculation accounts for exposed walls, glass, ceiling insulation and the altitude: at 5,351 feet, the ACHR News correction of about 0.92 at 5,000 feet means coils move a little less heat than the nameplate suggests. Getting this right avoids an oversized unit that cycles on and off and never pulls humidity out of a bedroom.

Although the city is surrounded by Denver, it runs its own building department, and HVAC installs need a permit there unless an exemption applies. The installer needs a license issued by the city itself; holding a Denver license does not count. Submittals are preferred electronically. We file and arrange the inspection, and the finished permit gives the owner a paper trail for the association and for a future sale.

Electrical capacity is the other check. Older apartment buildings may have small subpanels in each unit, and a new condenser or ductless outdoor unit needs its own dedicated circuit. We read the equipment's minimum circuit ampacity against what the unit's panel can support before quoting.

New split air conditioners in Colorado must meet at least 13.4 SEER2, and split heat pumps at least 14.3 SEER2. Equipment shipped since early 2025 uses R-454B or R-32 refrigerant, so older R-410A indoor coils and air handlers generally get replaced along with the outdoor unit.

Xcel Energy serves the city with electricity and gas. A heat pump is the same outdoor box as an AC with a reversing valve added, so pricing both side by side costs nothing and often changes the decision. Power Ahead Colorado, DRCOG's program, specifically includes apartment buildings as well as houses: its $1,500 rebate covers qualifying cold-climate heat pumps in existing buildings, with the paperwork filed before installation. The state adds a $1,000 credit per air-source unit in 2026, and the registered contractor who claims it must give you at least $333 of it on the invoice. Ignore older articles about the federal 25C credit, which ended with 2025, and check Xcel's rebate amounts, which were revised in October 2026.