HVAC in Houston runs as a dehumidifier that also happens to cool. The season barely lets up, so the coil, the drain pan, and the attic ducts live in wet heat for months. A clogged condensate line is not a small annoyance. It shuts the system down on a miserable afternoon or overflows into a ceiling that then grows mold. Humidity is the job. A rare cold night is not the city's pattern, and it should not lead the call.
Say what the house is actually doing. Air that feels cool but clammy points to runtime, airflow, or a coil that cannot wring out water. Warm air points to the condenser, the capacitor, or a system that flooded at the pad and has not been right since. Water at a return or a stain near the air handler points to the pan and the drain, which in this climate plug up with growth. Those are specific complaints. Use them.
Attic units sweat, duct board sags, and returns that leak pull wet attic air into the house. Insulation on the attic floor does not keep the equipment dry. Ask whether the drain has a cleanout, where it terminates, and whether the platform blocks the panels. Outdoor coils matted with debris cannot reject heat in air that is already heavy. Floodwater that covered a pad-mounted condenser is a different failure from a dirty coil. Say if the unit sat in water.
After a gulf storm, mention debris in the fan, a damaged disconnect, or a unit that will not start, and say whether the rest of the street has power. Do not turn a roof leak over the air handler into a mysterious equipment death. Photograph the pad and the pan. Ask the visit to check drainage and airflow before anyone talks about ripping the equipment out.
Have the address, where the handler and the condenser sit, and whether the symptom is clammy air, warm air, a wet ceiling, or a unit that took on floodwater. Mention a storm only if wind or water touched the equipment. Ask for a visit that treats moisture as the main problem. Call the number on this page.