HVAC in Atlanta earns its keep in a humid summer, then gets surprised by a short ice week. Cooling runs for months under the canopy and in the hotter open subdivisions. Attic air handlers above ranches and bungalows bake until a capacitor or a clogged condensate line gives up. The overflow stains a ceiling and everyone blames the roof. Filters load with oak pollen and pine dust faster than the sticker on the furnace suggests. Heat is the quiet failure: a furnace or heat strips that sat idle until the one week you need them.
If the house will not cool, say whether the outdoor unit is running, whether the indoor coil is a block of ice, and whether the filter was changed after pollen season. Weak airflow from a crushed duct or a missing upstairs return can look like a dead compressor, especially in a two-story house with a hot hall. If there is no heat, say so, and say whether you smell burning or gas. Do not spend the night on a daisy chain of space heaters and call it a repair plan.
A replacement call should ask about size for this house, not a copy of the old nameplate. Ducts in older Atlanta houses leak into attics and crawl spaces. Ask whether they are sealed or simply reused. Matched indoor and outdoor pieces belong in the description. Putting a new condenser on an old coil should be explained as its own choice, including what the old coil still risks. Humidity matters as much as degrees. Air that is cold and clammy is not a finished job in this climate.
Ask about the drain, the float switch, and the pan in the attic. A lot of so-called roof leaks in this city are condensate. On the heating side, ask whether the heat exchanger or the flue was part of the look, not only the part that failed to start. If you are adding equipment to a bungalow that never had a real return on the second floor, say that the comfort problem is old.
Say cooling or heat, say dead or weak, and say Atlanta. HVAC in this city is a long summer with a rude winter at the edges. Call the number on this page.