Fairfax County’s dwelling records list central air on 5,822 of the 5,906 houses in 22066. How many systems a house runs depends on the decade. The 1970s, the biggest building decade here, left houses of about 2,600 square feet above ground, and plenty still cool with one system. The 622 built since 2010 run closer to 6,200, often split three ways, each zone with its own outdoor unit and its own $99 tune-up.
In a little over half the owner homes, the ones heated by natural gas or propane, the air conditioner sits off from fall to spring. Great Falls has many large and old trees, as the county’s plan for the area notes, and a condenser under them collects a winter of what they drop: leaves on the fan guard, and more slid down between the coil and the cabinet. Clearing that out and rinsing the coil from the inside comes first, before the fan starts on it.
The lower floors usually cool from a coil on the basement furnace or air handler, and more than eight in ten Great Falls houses have a recreation room down there. Below grade that coil’s water often can’t drain by gravity, so a small pump lifts it out, a wall away from finished carpet. The tune-up clears the line and pours water through until the pump kicks on.
Three in four houses here are two stories, and the bedrooms often run on a second system with its air handler in the attic. About four in ten owner homes heat with electricity, which usually means a heat pump out in the yard working both seasons, tuned up for the same $99 as a unit that only cools. Count the outdoor units before you book: each one is a system of its own.