From the quote to the first cold night: a Jacksonville heat pump install, day by day
A heat pump replacement is a week-long story with one day of noise in the middle. Here is the whole week, and why Jacksonville's weather makes a heat pump the right ending.
The week, day by day
Day 0, the call. A homeowner in Intracoastal West calls 866-266-5709 about a 2005 heat pump that has needed three repairs in two summers. Dispatch at the Palm Coast headquarters books a comfort advisor for the next day.
Day 1, the visit. Not a sales pitch. A room-by-room load calculation with a laser measure, a look at window orientation and attic insulation, a static-pressure reading on the ducts, and photographs of the air handler closet and the condenser pad. Ninety minutes.
Day 2, the quote. A written proposal with two or three Lennox options, the duct work the measurements called for, the JEA rebate status, financing with low monthly payments if wanted, and the permit. No pressure to decide on the spot.
Day 3, the yes. Equipment confirmed in stock, permit application filed with the City of Jacksonville, install date set.
Day 6, the install. A crew of two arrives early. Floors protected, refrigerant recovered from the old system, old equipment out, new pad leveled, condenser set, new line set run, air handler and coil installed, drain rerouted with a float switch, surge protector at the disconnect, thermostat installed and programmed. Full cycle run in cooling and, if the weather allows, forced into heating. Readings recorded. Done by late afternoon.
Day 8, the inspection. The city inspector signs off. Cook’s handles the appointment.
The first cold night, December. The thermostat calls for heat. The compressor runs, the strips stay off, the bedroom is warm, and the JEA bill in January looks like the November one. That is the finish line.
Why Jacksonville is heat pump country
The weather here writes the equipment spec. Summers bring highs around 90 with dew points of 71 to 73 degrees from June through August; cooling demand lasts seven or eight months. Winters bring about 14 freeze nights, three of them hard, with lows in the 40s on ordinary nights. That is a climate that needs a lot of cooling and a little heating, and one machine that does both well beats a separate furnace that sits idle for eight months in humid air.
Add two local hazards: lightning counts nearly double the national average, and a river that has flooded Riverside, San Marco and downtown three times since 2016. Both change how a heat pump should be installed here, not just which one.
What the climate means for the equipment
- Efficiency tiers show up on the bill. SEER2 is the cooling number and HSPF2 the heating number. In a city that cools for 120-plus days, each step up in SEER2 is felt on every JEA statement from May to September; HSPF2 matters on the dozen or so freeze nights. JEA’s Tier 1 line of 16 SEER2, 11.0 EER2 and 8.0 HSPF2 is a sensible floor for most Jacksonville houses.
- Humidity control beats raw capacity. A variable-speed heat pump that runs long and slow pulls more water out of the air than an oversized single-stage unit that blasts and quits. In Oceanway and Baymeadows production homes, the right size is often a half-ton smaller than what came out.
- Corrosion is a spec item. Beachside installs at Mayport, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and on Amelia Island get coated coils and stainless hardware.
- Elevation is a spec item. On riverfront and AE-zone lots, the condenser goes on a stand above base flood elevation.
- Surge protection is not optional. A whole-system surge protector costs a fraction of a control board.
Request an installation estimate
Our approach, start to finish
Cook’s is a Lennox dealer and installs Lennox heat pumps, from single-stage units meeting the JEA threshold to variable-speed systems that hold indoor humidity in the low 50s in August. Every install starts with the load calculation and the duct check, because pre-1950 homes in Avondale, Springfield and Murray Hill have ducts that were added decades later and 1960s block ranches in Arlington have attic flex that leaks. A new heat pump on bad duct is a disappointment with a warranty.
The crew is Cook’s own, the permit is ours to pull, and the install runs any day of the week at any hour without an after-hours premium. Equipment registration for the extended parts warranty is handled before the truck leaves; get the labor warranty on a Cook’s install spelled out on the proposal. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]
Maintenance after the install
A new heat pump earns its efficiency numbers only if it stays clean and charged. Two visits a year, one before the hot season begins in late May and one before the first freeze in early December, keep the pollen off the coil, the algae out of the drain, the defrost circuit proven and the service record intact for the warranty. Cook’s service agreements cover both visits with priority scheduling; ask for the inclusions when you call. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]
Between visits: change the filter monthly during pollen season from February through May, keep two feet clear around the condenser, rinse the coil every month or two if you live near the ocean, and leave the thermostat on HEAT rather than EM HEAT on cold mornings. The install is one day. The next fifteen years are maintenance.
Install questions from Jacksonville homeowners
Is the JEA heating-and-cooling rebate still open for my install?
JEA has paid $200 on ENERGY STAR systems meeting its Tier 1 thresholds (16 SEER2, 11.0 EER2, 8.0 HSPF2), applied on the contractor’s invoice. The 2026 program year closed October 10, 2026, and the next cycle has not been announced. We check the current status before every quote; ask for it then. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]] The federal 25C credit ended December 31, 2025.
Our old unit rattles the bedroom window. Will the replacement be noticeably quieter?
Almost certainly. A fifteen-year-old single-stage condenser with a worn fan motor is loud by design and louder by age. Current variable-speed Lennox units run at a fraction of that sound level most of the time, and a level pad with proper isolation handles the rest.
Our lot floods at king tide. Where does the outdoor unit go?
Up. On riverfront lots in San Marco, Riverside, Ortega and the Southbank, we set the condenser on a stand above the base flood elevation and, where possible, raise the air handler too. After Irma and Nicole, this is standard practice on any AE-zone lot, and it is a line item you will see on the quote.
Once I say yes to the quote, how many days until it's running?
For in-stock equipment, typically within the week, and sooner when the old system is dead and the house is uncomfortable. Cook’s installs around the clock, seven days a week. Special-order equipment and jobs with duct redesign take longer, and the quote will say so.
Other services in Jacksonville
- A/C ServicesRepair, tune-ups, replacements and duct work for Duval, Nassau and Baker, from one phone number.
- A/C RepairDiagnosed, quoted, then fixed. Nights and weekends at the daytime price, every brand on the street.
- A/C MaintenanceTwo visits a year, one before the heat and one after it, built around Jacksonville's pollen, storms and salt.
- A/C InstallationA decision tree for repair versus replace, then a load-calculated install with the JEA rebate handled on the invoice.
- ThermostatsSmart, programmable or plain. Matched to the wiring your house actually has, with the JEA rebate in mind.
- GeothermalGround-loop heat pumps for large Jacksonville lots, Nassau and Baker acreage, and commercial sites with parking to drill under.
- Heating ServicesHeat pumps, gas furnaces, electric strips and ductless units, serviced for a winter of fourteen freezes and three hard ones.
- Heat PumpThe system that cools eight months and heats fourteen nights. Repaired, maintained and replaced by a Lennox dealer.
- Heat Pump RepairCapacitors, boards, reversing valves, defrost controls and compressors, any brand, any hour, same price.
- Heat Pump MaintenanceSpring and fall visits that test both modes, because a heat pump that passed August can still fail the first freeze.
- Furnace RepairIgniters, flame sensors, inducers, sequencers and heat exchangers, diagnosed with a meter and a camera, not a guess.
- Furnace MaintenanceCombustion analysis, camera inspection and a cleaned flame sensor before the first freeze, for gas, propane and electric furnaces.
- Furnace InstallationGas and propane furnaces, dual-fuel pairings and the honest case for skipping the furnace altogether.
- Air QualityHumidity, pollen, dust and musty air, traced to the way each Jacksonville house was built and fixed accordingly.
- Indoor Air QualityMeasured assessments for houses and businesses, then filtration, dehumidification, ventilation and duct sealing matched to the readings.
- Duct CleaningA look inside first, then cleaning, sealing or replacement, whichever the ducts actually need.
- CommercialRooftop units, split systems and three-phase equipment for offices, restaurants, shops and medical suites across Duval, Nassau and Baker.
Start with a free estimate
A load calculation, a duct check and a written quote. No obligation, no after-hours fee if the old one quits first.