What a Home Inspection Can Tell You About HVAC in Phoenix

If you are buying a home in Greater Phoenix, the air conditioner is likely on your mind. A short inspection period does not leave much time to learn about it. A home inspection does cover heating and cooling. Arizona requires certified home inspectors to follow a written standard of practice.

That standard spells out what the inspector must check and what the inspector is not required to do. This post walks through both, along with next steps once your report arrives. For the full scope of a standard visit, see our guide to [what a home inspection covers in Arizona](/blog/what-a-home-inspection-covers-arizona).

What a Home Inspection Checks on Air Conditioning

For cooling, Arizona's standards of practice for home inspectors require the inspector to observe several parts of the system. These are the permanently installed cooling equipment, its normal operating controls, the distribution system that carries cooling through the house, and the air filters. The inspector also notes whether each habitable space, meaning each room people live in, has an installed cooling source.

The standards then require more than looking. The inspector describes the energy source, the type of cooling equipment and the type of distribution. The inspector operates the system using its normal operating controls. The inspector also opens the readily openable access panels that the manufacturer or installer provided for routine homeowner maintenance.

From that, you learn what kind of system the house has, what powers it and how the air gets to the rooms. If the system was run, you also learn whether it responded when it was turned on the usual way.

We also check the condensation lines. Almost every home has the AC running when we arrive, so we can see the condensation line and whether it is working properly. The condensation line from the unit, generally the lower line, should be dripping while the system runs. The drain line coming from the pan, generally the higher line, should not be dripping.

What a Home Inspection Checks on Heating

The heating section of the standards covers the same ground. It adds items such as automatic safety controls and chimneys, flues and vents. The inspector observes the heating equipment, its normal operating controls, the distribution system and the air filters. The inspector also notes whether each habitable space has an installed heat source.

Fuel-burning fireplaces and stoves are part of the heating section too. As with cooling, the inspector describes the heating system, operates it with its normal controls and opens the readily openable access panels provided for routine homeowner maintenance.

What Arizona's Inspection Standards Leave Out on HVAC

The standards are just as clear about what an inspector is not required to do. Some of those limits are there to protect the equipment. An inspector is not required to run a heating or cooling system when the weather or other circumstances could damage it. The standards also do not require operating a system that is shut down or that does not respond to its normal controls.

When it is too hot outside, we do not run the heat. Running it in high temperatures could damage the unit and create a problem that did not exist before. When we skip it, the report includes a note flagged orange saying the heat was not run because of the high temperature. We always recommend having the HVAC system serviced and inspected by a licensed HVAC technician.

Automatic safety controls on a heating system are observed, but the inspector is not required to operate them. For both heating and cooling, the standards do not require an inspector to observe whether heat or cool air reaches the various rooms evenly or adequately. Window units and portable heaters or air conditioners are also outside what the inspector is required to observe.

The heating section also lists items the inspector is not required to observe, including:

• How the dampers and thermostats of a multi-zone system function, or how efficient they are
• The inside of a flue
• Humidifiers
• Electronic air filters

The standards require the inspector to note whether each habitable space has an installed cooling source. The standards do not require the inspector to check whether the back bedroom stays as cool as the living room on a hot afternoon.

AC Life Expectancy, Efficiency and Operating Costs

Three of the general exclusions in the standards apply directly to air conditioning in a place with 110-degree summers. An inspector is not required to predict the life expectancy of a system or future conditions, such as a component failing. An inspector is not required to calculate the strength, adequacy or efficiency of a system. And an inspector is not required to project what a component will cost to operate.

For an older unit, you may want to know how many summers it has left and whether it can keep up with the house. You may also want to know what the power bill will look like. The standards do not require an inspector to answer those questions.

The standards also do not require an inspector to determine the age of a component. They describe an inspection as visual and not technically exhaustive. An inspection under these standards will not identify concealed conditions or latent defects.

We record the age of the HVAC equipment, and we include a photo of the unit's data plate when it is accessible. That way, buyers have the information from the unit they need to decide whether their plans for the house are possible.

Older AC Systems and Your Inspection Report

These limits shape what the report can tell you about an older system. You will know what equipment is there, what it runs on and how the air reaches the rooms. If it was run, you will also know how it responded to its normal controls on the day. The report also covers what we could see that needs attention.

Findings are color-coded by priority: red for hazards, orange for repair recommendations and blue for things worth knowing. Our guide to [reading your inspection report](/blog/what-a-home-inspection-covers-arizona/deficiency-vs-routine-how-to-read-your-report) explains how to work through each color. The full report arrives within 24 hours. That means less of your inspection period goes to waiting, and more is left for deciding whether you want a closer look at the heating and cooling.

In a home where the HVAC equipment runs half the year, the condition of an older system is a fair thing to plan around. How much weight you give it is your decision to make with your agent. That includes whether it becomes a repair request, a price conversation or nothing at all.

Next Steps After the HVAC Section of Your Report

If the inspection leads to a repair and the seller agrees to make it, we can come back and look at the work. Our [single-item inspections and re-inspections](/services/single-item-re-inspection) cover that. A re-inspection covers up to five individual items, or one full system. A single-item inspection looks at one concern on its own.

Inspection pricing is published by square footage on the [pricing page](/pricing). You can read more about the full visit on our [home inspection service page](/services/home-inspection). You are welcome to walk the inspection with us, and we encourage it. If a system was not run, or part of it could not be reached, that is a good moment to ask about it.

Our job is to help you understand what you are buying. Your job is to decide if what you're buying is what you were hoping for.