Florida HVAC in 2026: What Actually Changed
The federal tax credit that used to cover part of a new system is gone — it expired on 31 December 2025, and a system installed in 2026 does not qualify for it.
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If you have been putting off a replacement, the ground moved under you this year. Four things changed, and the one people have heard about is not the one that matters most.
The tax credit is gone
The 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit ended on 31 December 2025, terminated by legislation passed in July 2025. It had been worth up to $2,000 on a qualifying heat pump, and smaller amounts on efficient air conditioners.
If your system was installed and in service before that date, you can still claim it on your 2025 return. If you are buying now, take it out of the math entirely. Utility and state rebate programs are separate from the federal credit and still worth asking about.
The refrigerant deadline was reversed halfway through the year
Manufacturers stopped building residential R-410A systems on 1 January 2025. Everything new now runs on A2L refrigerant — R-454B for most brands, R-32 for the Daikin family.
The EPA had also planned to prohibit installing leftover R-410A equipment built before 2025, starting 1 January 2026. In May 2026 the agency reversed course and lifted that deadline, acknowledging the rule had stranded usable equipment in warehouses. Pre-2025 stock is back on the table rather than written off.
None of this touches a system you already own. Servicing an existing R-410A unit remains legal and the refrigerant is still available — though with demand pressure across the sector, it is not getting cheaper.
The efficiency minimum gets quoted wrong constantly
Florida sits in the federal Southeast region, which is held to a higher standard than the north of the country. For a new split-system air conditioner under 45,000 BTU/h the minimum is 14.3 SEER2; above that size it is 13.8. Heat pumps are 14.3 SEER2 and 7.5 HSPF2 nationwide. The northern minimum, for comparison, is 13.4.
You will see 15.2 repeated as “the Florida minimum” on a lot of pages. It is not the federal minimum for this region.
The more useful number is what sits above the floor. ENERGY STAR certification for a split system requires 17.0 SEER2 and 12.0 EER2 — a long way from the legal minimum. The minimum is a floor, not a recommendation, and in a climate that runs cooling nine months a year the gap between the two shows up on every bill.
The Florida rule nobody mentions
Replacing a system in Florida requires a permit, and the state’s energy code requires the contractor or a licensed engineer to submit heating and cooling load calculations with that permit application.
That requirement exists to prevent the most expensive mistake available in this climate: equipment sized by rule of thumb instead of by the actual house. An oversized system cools fast, satisfies the thermostat and shuts off before it has pulled the humidity out — which is the half of the job that matters here.
So the honest 2026 recommendation is duller than a headline. The credit is gone, the refrigerant question turned out to be less urgent than it looked in January, and the number that decides how the house feels is not the one on the sticker. What is left is sizing, installation quality, and whether the paperwork was done properly.
Degree 71 LLC, the licensed contractor behind this site, handles that across Central Florida — including the load calculation that has to be on the permit in the first place.