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Repair or replace: the Casselberry version of the question
Repair a young system with a cheap failed part. Replace when the compressor or coil goes on an older system, or when the house is still on 1970s and 80s electric strip heat. In Casselberry that last case is not unusual — 57.1% of the city’s 8,563 residential parcels were built between 1970 and 1989, the era when Florida builders fitted straight-cool condensers with resistance heat because winter here barely justified anything more.
Find your build year
Share of Casselberry’s improved residential parcels by decade built. Seminole County Property Appraiser CAMA extract (Parcels.csv, dated 2026-09-05). Improved residential parcels — single-family, townhome and condominium — in city tax district C1, City of Casselberry. n = 8,563.
| Your house was built | Share of city | What a Casselberry house of that vintage usually still has | What to check first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1970 | 19.9% | Central air was frequently retrofitted rather than designed in. Duct runs were added to a house that was not planned around them, so returns are undersized and the supply layout is whatever fitted the attic. | Return air path and total external static pressure, before anything else. Equipment cannot fix a duct system it cannot breathe through. |
| 1970 – 1989 | 57.1% | Concrete-block ranch, straight-cool condenser with electric resistance strip heat in the air handler. Winter here is mild enough that builders rarely paid for a heat pump. The original equipment is four decades gone; the duct trunk in the attic very often is not. | Whether the house is still on strip heat. That single answer decides the size of the Duke Energy rebate and most of the operating-cost argument. |
| 1990 – 1999 | 6.2% | The smallest band in the city — Casselberry did very little building in the nineties. Heat pumps are common by this point and duct work is usually inside conditioned or semi-conditioned space. | Coil and lineset condition. These houses are typically on their second system, which is now itself at replacement age. |
| 2000 and later | 16.8% | Built to the post-2001 Florida Building Code: heat pump, interior air handler, tested duct system. Legacy Park, Grayson Square, Lost Lake Estates and the Lake Howell communities sit here. | Nothing structural. This is straight replacement-cycle work — and on the 2004-2007 houses, first-generation equipment is now at end of life. |
The share column is from the parcel file. The two right-hand columns are our reading of what construction of that era in this climate typically looks like — informed, not measured. The only way to know what your house has is to open it.
Four things that move the answer
1. Which part failed
Capacitor, contactor, drain line, control board, fan motor: repair. Compressor or evaporator coil on a system past ten years: the repair is a large fraction of a replacement and buys you an old system.
2. What refrigerant it holds
EPA’s Technology Transitions rule under the AIM Act set a 700 GWP limit for residential air conditioning with a manufacture and import compliance date of 1 January 2025. New equipment now ships with A2L refrigerants such as R-454B. An existing R-410A system can still be legally repaired and recharged, and pre-2025 R-410A equipment already in the channel can still be installed — but sale, distribution and export of those products is prohibited from 1 January 2028. R-410A is being phased down, which shifts the repair-versus-replace maths toward replacement sooner than it used to on an older system.
3. What it does for heat
Strip heat is the most expensive heating in the house and the largest single lever available in this housing stock. Check your thermostat: no EM HEAT or AUX setting usually means straight-cool plus resistance heat.
4. What the ducts can carry
77% of Casselberry’s residential parcels predate 1990. A duct system that is already at its limit does not get better because you put a better condenser on the end of it. Measure first.
Book the free Duke Energy Home Energy Check before you replace anything.
Duke Energy requires a free Home Energy Check completed within the previous 24 months to qualify for any Home Energy Improvement rebate. Replace the system first and apply afterwards and the application is denied — there is no retroactive path back.
It is a no-cost visit and it is the single most common way a Casselberry homeowner loses a four-figure rebate. If you are within a year of replacing, book it now, before you call anyone for a quote. Duke’s rebate line is 800.254.8535.
What Duke Energy publishes
Duke Energy’s Home Energy Improvement programme page, marked effective 7 May 2025, publishes these tiers for HVAC replacement:
| Replacement | Published | Equipment requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Strip heat → heat pump | $1,000 | 16.8 SEER & 9.0 HSPF, or 16 SEER2 & 7.5 HSPF2 |
| Strip heat → heat pump | $600 | 16.0 SEER & 9.0 HSPF, or 15.2 SEER2 & 7.5 HSPF2 |
| Existing heat pump replaced | $500 | 16 SEER & 9.0 HSPF, or 15.2 SEER2 & 7.5 HSPF2 |
| Existing AC replaced | $300 | 16 SEER or 15.2 SEER2 |
The top tier is a strip-heat-to-heat-pump conversion. That is the exact configuration much of Casselberry’s 1970–89 stock was built with, which is why this argument is stronger in this city than in the newer parts of the county.
Duke also publishes separate rebates for duct test and repair, attic insulation and energy-efficient windows. Work must be done by a licensed, insured air conditioning contractor.
Read this before you count on a number.
We are quoting what Duke Energy publishes, not what Duke Energy Florida has confirmed it pays. Two honest caveats:
- The programme page carrying the tiers above is not scoped to a single state — its body references the Carolinas, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Florida. The Florida application portal confirms the programme and the Home Energy Check prerequisite apply to Duke Energy Florida, but we located no Florida-scoped statement of these specific dollar amounts.
- Duke’s own Florida news releases from June 2023 and January 2024 quoted a considerably smaller figure — HVAC replacement, single-family, up to $300, within a total of up to $1,700 across all measures. We are not going to pretend those two things agree.
Call Duke on 800.254.8535 and get your amount confirmed for your address and your equipment before you sign anything. Any contractor who quotes you a rebate as a certainty without that call is quoting you a hope.
Rebate figures checked September 2026.
What has to be true of the new system
- Minimum efficiency
- Florida is in the DOE Southeast region. Split-system central air conditioners must meet 14.3 SEER2 under 45,000 Btu/hr and 13.8 SEER2 at or above it. Split-system heat pumps: 14.3 SEER2 and 7.5 HSPF2.
- Enforced at installation
- In the Southeast the standard applies on the installation date, not the manufacture date. Pre-2023 equipment that a northern state can still legally install cannot be installed in Florida. If a quote is unusually cheap, ask what the SEER2 rating is and when the unit was made.
- Sized to the house
- A load calculation, not a ton-for-ton match to whatever is on the pad. In a 1,044 sq ft Colonnades house or a 781 sq ft Marbeya Club unit, a half-ton of oversizing is a large percentage error, and it shows up as humidity you cannot fix with the thermostat.
- Permitted and inspected
- City of Casselberry at a flat $200, or Seminole County if your address is unincorporated. Both under the 2023 Florida Building Code, 8th Edition. See the permit guide.
Casselberry’s Neighborhood Improvement Grant does not pay for an air conditioner.
The city runs a Neighborhood Improvement Grant Program, established by the City Commission in 2013, that reimburses 50% of a project up to $2,500 and requires three quotes including one from a business based in Casselberry. It is a good programme and homeowners hear about it.
It is also exterior beautification only. The city’s published purpose is enhancing the exterior appearance of residential areas, the scoring questions ask how the project improves appearance and property value, and HVAC replacement is not listed among eligible improvements. Anyone who tells you this grant will offset a changeout is guessing. If you want it in writing, ask the city’s planning department directly.
Source: City of Casselberry, Neighborhood Improvement Grant Program page and Submittal Requirements document (rev. 29 October 2025).
Rough numbers, so you can sanity-check any quote
A 2026 survey of 1,000 homeowners put an installed HVAC system at $8,209 on average nationally, a central air conditioner at $8,460 and an air-source heat pump at $8,007. A Florida statewide guide gives $5,800–$12,500 installed, with a typical 3-ton job near $8,500, plus $1,500–$5,000 if the ducts have to be part of the job.
The same guide notes that October to February is the cheaper window and a summer emergency replacement runs 10–20% more. If your system is limping and you have the choice, replacing it in the autumn is worth real money — and it also gives you time to get the Home Energy Check done first.
Sources: This Old House HVAC replacement cost guide (updated 2 September 2026, national survey of 1,000 homeowners); a Florida statewide AC replacement cost guide checked April 2026 — reader-supported with undisclosed methodology, so the weaker source. Checked September 2026. These are researched third-party market estimates for comparison. They are not a quote and not our pricing.
Replacement questions
Should I Replace Or Repair My HVAC System?
Repair while the fault is a wear part and the system is otherwise sound. Replace once the failure is in the sealed system — compressor or evaporator coil — on equipment past about ten years, or once the same system has failed twice in one cooling season. In Casselberry there is a third trigger that has nothing to do with the fault: if the house is still on straight-cool with electric strip heat, which is the standard build in the 57.1% of this city constructed between 1970 and 1989, replacing with a qualifying heat pump is worth up to $1,000 from Duke Energy — but only if the free Home Energy Check happened first. A repair that forfeits that is more expensive than it looks.
When should I replace an air conditioner instead of repairing it?
Replace when the failed component is the compressor or the evaporator coil on a system past about ten years, when the repair cost approaches a meaningful share of a replacement, when the same system has failed more than once in a single cooling season, or when the system is straight-cool with electric strip heat and a heat pump conversion changes what the house costs to run. Repair when the fault is a capacitor, a contactor, a drain line, a control board or a fan motor on a system that is otherwise sound — those are cheap parts and replacing a working system over one of them is money thrown away.
Is it better to have a heat pump or a split AC and heating system in Orlando?
For this climate a heat pump is normally the better system, and the reason is the heating side rather than the cooling side. Central Florida winters are mild — January averages a 71°F high and a 52°F low — which is exactly the range where a heat pump is at its most efficient and where electric resistance strip heat is at its most expensive. On cooling the two are broadly comparable at the same efficiency rating. The catch is airflow: a heat pump moves more air at lower supply temperatures, so the existing duct system has to be measured, not assumed.
My Air Conditioning Unit And/Or Heater Are Due For Replacement. Should I Get A Heat Pump?
In Casselberry, usually yes — and if your house is currently on electric strip heat, the case is stronger than usual, because Duke Energy publishes its largest Home Energy Improvement rebate for exactly that conversion. Before you do anything else, book the free Duke Energy Home Energy Check. It must have been completed within the previous 24 months for any rebate to be paid, and there is no way to apply retroactively once the new system is in.
These questions are reproduced verbatim from the published FAQ pages of Central Florida HVAC companies and from indexed article titles — they are real searcher phrasings, not a captured Google People Also Ask box.
Get the honest version for your house
Give us the build year, what the thermostat looks like and what failed. That is usually enough to point you toward which side of this decision you are on, before anyone comes out.
Phone: (689) 308-3675 · Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Where the facts on this page come from
Every figure above is either a primary-source document or a named third-party cost guide. All of it was checked in September 2026. Fee schedules, rebate amounts and market prices change without notice — if you are about to spend money on one of these numbers, open the source and check it.
- Seminole County Property Appraiser
- U.S. Census Bureau ACS table B25035 via Census Reporter, Casselberry profile
- Duke Energy, Home Energy Improvement prerequisites (Florida)
- Duke Energy, Home Energy Improvement HVAC replacement
- Duke Energy Florida rebate application portal
- This Old House, air conditioner repair cost guide (updated 16 March 2026)
- U.S. EPA, Technology Transitions HFC restrictions by sector