AC repair in Richmond, TX, starts with where the house sits. Richmond is the county seat of Fort Bend County, on the banks of the Brazos River, and the river shapes daily life here more than any other feature. Around the old town, farm fields keep turning into subdivisions. Here is what that means for your cooling and heating, and how one free call reaches a local company.
Houston Air & Heating answers calls; it does not do HVAC work. When you dial (832) 662-4107, an automated assistant asks what you need and hands you to an HVAC company in the Richmond area that is independent and locally owned. It inspects, quotes and repairs, and you pay the company directly.
Richmond: an old river town with new neighbors
Richmond is one of the oldest towns in the Houston area. Members of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred settled here in 1822 around a log fort at a bend of the Brazos, the Fort Bend that gave the county its name. Robert Eden Handy and William Lusk laid out the town in 1837, the Republic of Texas incorporated it that May, and it became the seat of the new Fort Bend County when the county was created that December.
As the county seat, Richmond is where Fort Bend County government works from, and the Brazos runs right past it. When the river rises, the gauge at Richmond is the reading county officials point to, as they did through Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
A Richmond mailing address does not always mean a home is inside the city limits. Some houses with a Richmond address sit in subdivisions in the surrounding county, and that can change which office handles permits and who maintains the drainage near you. Before a replacement, ask the company to confirm which rules apply to your address.
A small city count, a fast growing edge
The 2020 Census counted 11,627 people inside Richmond's city limits, a little below the 11,679 counted in 2010. Since then the Census Bureau estimates the city grew to 12,816 by July 2023. Those numbers cover only the city itself. Thousands more homes carry a Richmond mailing address in surrounding subdivisions, some served by municipal utility districts rather than the city's own water system.
For heating and cooling, that split shapes the questions. If you own one of the older homes near the historic downtown, central air may have been added long after the house was built, so ask where the ducts run and how well they are sealed. In the subdivisions built over the past couple of decades, many original systems are reaching the age when repair or replacement becomes the real choice.
Services Richmond homes ask about
The bread and butter is AC repair: a system that blows warm, freezes up or will not start. Owners of older equipment weigh AC installation and replacement against another repair, and the repair or replace guide walks through that choice. When winter brings a hard freeze, heating repair covers heat pumps and furnaces alike.
AC Repair in Houston
Warm air, a unit that hums but will not start, ice on the lines or a tripped breaker. How a careful diagnosis works in Houston heat and what to ask before you approve a repair.
Emergency AC Repair (24/7)
No cooling at night, on a weekend or during a heat wave or power outage. What to do while you wait and who is most at risk.
AC Installation and Replacement
Why a load calculation matters more than the brand, what a complete replacement quote lists, and permits in Houston.
Heating Repair (Heat Pumps and Electric Heat)
Heat pumps blowing cool air, aux heat running all night, electric heat strips that quit. How Houston homes heat and what goes wrong before a freeze.
The Brazos at Richmond during Harvey
The 2017 storm shows why a Richmond homeowner thinks about where the outdoor unit sits.
Evacuations widened
Fort Bend County first ordered mandatory evacuations along the San Bernard River and only voluntary ones near the Brazos. As the forecast worsened, it ordered people close to the Brazos banks to leave too.
The crest
The National Weather Service gauge at Richmond recorded a record 55.19 feet. Before the crest, the county judge called the forecast flood an 800 year event that exceeded the design of the county's levees.
Behind the levees
The county ordered evacuations for many of the levee improvement districts along the Brazos, neighborhoods that normally count on levees to keep the river out.
Keeping equipment above the water
Across Fort Bend County, many neighborhoods rely on levee improvement districts, local bodies that build and run levees, drainage and pump stations to keep river water out and pump rainwater away. Even behind a levee, heavy rain can pond in low spots while the river is high and drainage is slow.
For an air conditioner, the outdoor condenser is the part most at risk, followed by the indoor unit in a garage or closet on the ground floor. If you are replacing a system on a lot that has held water before, ask whether the new condenser can go on a raised stand or a taller pad. If your current unit has been in water, have it checked before you run it.
Reading SEER2 before you replace
If your system is more than a few years old, the label on a new one will use a different number. Since January 1, 2023, air conditioners have been rated in SEER2, a stricter test that gives lower figures for the same equipment. Texas falls in the federal Southeast region, where a new split system air conditioner under 45,000 BTU per hour must reach at least 14.3 SEER2, and larger ones at least 13.8 SEER2.
| What you see | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| SEER on your old unit | The old test. Not directly comparable with SEER2 numbers on a new quote. |
| 14.3 SEER2 | The federal minimum here for most new split systems under 45,000 BTU per hour. |
| 13.8 SEER2 | The minimum for larger split systems at 45,000 BTU per hour and up. |
| R-22 on the old nameplate | That refrigerant has not been made or imported in the U.S. since 2020, so recharging it gets harder every year. |
A higher rating only pays off if the system is sized and installed correctly. Ask for a load calculation based on your house, its windows and its insulation, not a copy of whatever size was there before.
Safe checks before you call
- Thermostat on Cool and set below the room temperature, with fresh batteries.
- A clean air filter. A clogged one can freeze the coil.
- One reset of a tripped breaker, and no more.
- Debris, weeds and leaves cleared away from the outdoor unit.
Gas smell: leave the house, then call 911 and the gas company on your bill from outside. Carbon monoxide alarm: everyone out, then call 911.
Power and paperwork for a Richmond home
Richmond is in CenterPoint Energy's electric delivery area, with a retail provider of your choosing on the bill. CenterPoint restores outages; your provider handles billing. When the lights come on but the AC stays off, the fix comes from an HVAC company.
CenterPoint is also the natural gas utility for Richmond; its gas rate documents list Richmond among the Texas cities it serves. To report a gas leak, CenterPoint lists 888-876-5786, called from outside once everyone is out of the house. The City of Richmond itself bills water, wastewater and trash, not gas or power.
Permits inside the city
Inside city limits, the City of Richmond Building Department issues permits under the codes the city has adopted, which include a mechanical code for heating and cooling work. Permit applications and inspection requests now go through the MyGovernmentOnline portal. The city also amended its building code so that a contractor must be registered with the city before it can pull a building permit, which gives you one more thing to confirm before a replacement begins. Homes in unincorporated subdivisions with a Richmond address may fall under different rules, so ask.
Questions to ask before work starts
- What is your Texas ACR license number? Check it on TDLR's license search.
- Is my home inside Richmond city limits? Ask who issues the permit and whether you will pull it.
- Are you registered with the City of Richmond? Inside the city, registration is required before a contractor can pull a permit.
- Has this unit been in water? If so, ask what was tested.
- What is the SEER2 rating of the new system? And how does it compare with the minimum?
Why Richmond homeowners call the line
In town or out in the county
Historic Richmond or a new subdivision outside the city limits, the same free number connects you with an independent company working in the area.
Answered when the weather turns
The line picks up at any hour. If the company is busy, your name, number and problem are passed along so it can call back.
Nothing to pay the line
Calling is free. The HVAC company gives its own price and you pay it, never the line.
A license check you can do yourself
This site shows how to look up a company's Texas air conditioning license on the TDLR search before you agree to anything.
How a Richmond call works
- Dial the numberAn automated assistant picks up (832) 662-4107 at any hour and asks what you need help with.
- Say what is wrongTell it whether the trouble is cooling or heating, where in the Houston area you are, and what the system is doing.
- Reach a local companyYour call is transferred to an independent, locally owned HVAC company, which gets a short summary of your problem before it answers.
- Work it out with themThat company inspects, quotes, repairs and bills you directly. If nobody can pick up, your name, number and problem are passed on for a call back.
About this line: Houston Air & Heating is a free phone line, not an HVAC contractor. It answers your call and connects you with an independent local heating and air conditioning company, which inspects, quotes and does the work, and which you pay directly. Companies may pay a referral fee. You never pay the line. Read how the line works.
Verify the license before work begins. Texas requires anyone contracting to do air conditioning, refrigeration or heating work to hold an Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (ACR) Contractor license from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). Ask the company for its ACR license number, then confirm it on the TDLR license search (opens in a new tab). The line does not check this for you.
Areas near Richmond
Every greater Houston community the line serves: