Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, and for Central Florida the dangerous heart of it — August and September — is right around the corner. Your air conditioner is one of the most expensive and most exposed systems in your home: a large electrical appliance sitting outdoors, wired to the grid, in the path of wind, water, and the power surges that storms drag behind them. A little preparation costs almost nothing. The alternative can be a fried control board during the storm, or weeks waiting on equipment while half the county files the same insurance claim.
AmeriTech Air Conditioning and Heating has helped Orlando, Winter Park, and Maitland homeowners through every named storm since 2009. This is the checklist we give our own customers — before the storm, during it, and in the critical first hours after power returns.
Before the Storm: The Preparation Checklist
- Get a professional check-up early in the season. A system with marginal components fails under post-storm stress. An AC check-up confirms the electrical components, refrigerant charge, and drainage are healthy before you need them most.
- Verify your condenser is properly anchored. Florida building code requires outdoor units to be secured to a mounting pad with hurricane-rated tie-downs. Older installations sometimes predate current requirements or have corroded straps. This is a quick visual check with an outsized payoff in a windstorm.
- Clear the yard around the outdoor unit. Patio furniture, potted plants, and loose branches become projectiles. Most storm damage we see on condensers is impact damage from flying debris, not wind itself.
- Trim overhanging limbs near the condenser and the electrical service drop.
- Photograph your equipment. A two-minute walk-around with your phone — model plates, serial numbers, overall condition — makes any insurance claim dramatically smoother.
- Consider covering the condenser only when a storm is imminent with a manufacturer-approved cover or plywood shield, and only with the power off. Never run a covered unit, and remove covers immediately after — a wrapped condenser traps corrosive moisture.
Should You Turn Off Your AC During a Hurricane?
Yes. When the storm actually arrives, the professional consensus is clear: shut the system down at the thermostat first, then switch off the AC breakers at the electrical panel. Here is the reasoning:
- Pre-cool the house first. In the hours before conditions deteriorate, set the thermostat a few degrees cooler than usual. Your home will hold that cooler, drier air for a surprisingly long time once it is sealed up.
- Shut down at the thermostat, then flip the breakers for both the air handler and the outdoor unit.
- Why it matters: hurricanes bring exactly the grid conditions that kill HVAC electronics — lightning strikes, surges as lines fail and reconnect, and brownouts as the grid staggers. A system that is electrically disconnected cannot be hurt by any of them. A running compressor hit by a deep voltage sag or repeated flickers can be damaged in seconds.
The few degrees of comfort you give up are cheap insurance against replacing a variable-speed control board — among the most expensive electronic components in a modern system — with every HVAC contractor in the region backlogged.
Surge Protection: The Upgrade Worth Making Before August
Breakers protect wiring from overcurrent; they do nothing against voltage surges. Dedicated surge protection does, and it comes in two layers that work best together: a whole-home surge protector at the electrical panel, and an HVAC-specific surge protector at the condenser disconnect. Together they clamp the spikes that ride in on grid restoration — often the most damaging moment of the entire storm cycle, when power slams back into the neighborhood.
No surge device is a guarantee against a direct lightning strike, but against the far more common grid-switching surges, they are highly effective and cost a small fraction of the electronics they protect. AmeriTech's licensed electrical division installs both layers, usually in a single short visit.
After the Storm: The Restart Checklist
More AC systems are damaged in the restart than in the storm itself. Before you flip those breakers back on:
- Inspect the outdoor unit visually. Look for debris jammed into the fan grille, bent coil fins, a shifted or tilted unit, or damaged refrigerant lines. Do not energize a unit that has been struck or displaced.
- Check for flooding. If standing water reached the condenser — more than a few inches up the base — do not restore power until a technician has inspected it. Floodwater contaminates motors, wiring, and controls, and energizing a soaked unit can destroy components that would have survived drying and cleaning.
- Wait for stable power. Give the grid 15 to 30 minutes after restoration before restarting the AC. The first minutes after power returns are full of sags and spikes.
- Restore breakers, then the thermostat. If your system has a crankcase heater, ideally give it several hours energized before calling for cooling — your manual or your technician can confirm.
- Listen and watch for the first hour. Grinding, buzzing, repeated stopping and starting, or a breaker trip means shut it down and call. Our guide to common AC noises covers what each sound tends to mean.
If the Storm Wins: Insurance, Documentation, and the Contractor You Let In
Sometimes preparation is not enough. If your system is damaged, two things determine how painful the aftermath is: your documentation and your choice of contractor.
Documenting HVAC storm damage for a claim
- Photograph everything before touching anything — the unit from all sides, debris, water lines on the slab or walls, the displaced pad. Pair these with your pre-season photos and the before-and-after story tells itself.
- Do not authorize permanent repairs before the adjuster's guidance, but reasonable temporary measures to prevent further damage are generally expected — keep receipts for everything.
- Get a written professional assessment. An itemized diagnosis from a licensed contractor stating what failed and why — wind, water intrusion, or electrical surge — carries far more weight with an adjuster than a homeowner's description. Surge damage in particular is invisible from the outside and needs a technician's findings on paper.
Beware the post-storm contractor wave
Every major storm pulls a wave of unlicensed operators and out-of-state storm chasers into Central Florida, and HVAC is a favorite target because homeowners without cooling are desperate. Protect yourself with three checks: verify a Florida contractor license (ours is CAC1817383 — any legitimate contractor will hand theirs over without hesitation), confirm a permanent local address and history, and refuse large cash deposits for equipment that has not been delivered. A company that was serving Orlando before the storm will still be here for the warranty claim after it.
A Note on Generators
Most portable generators cannot start a central air conditioner — compressor starting current is several times its running draw, and an undersized generator delivers exactly the kind of voltage sag that damages compressor motors. Unless you have a properly sized standby generator installed with a transfer switch, keep the AC off generator power and let the generator carry the refrigerator, fans, and essentials. In an Orlando August, a house without cooling becomes genuinely uncomfortable within hours — so plan for it deliberately: window shades down, a couple of quality box fans, and dehumidifier use if you have backup power to spare will keep a sealed house tolerable far longer than most people expect. If backup cooling matters for your household, talk to us about soft-start equipment and correctly sized standby options before the season peaks.
Why Late July Is Exactly the Right Time to Do This
The Atlantic season officially opens June 1, but Central Florida's real exposure concentrates in August, September, and October — the stretch when sea-surface temperatures peak and the long-track storms spin up off Africa. That calendar quirk is your advantage: right now, in the lull before the season's heart, HVAC schedules still have room, surge protectors are on the shelf, and a tie-down inspection is a routine appointment instead of a triage call. The week a storm enters the five-day cone, none of that is true. Supply houses empty of generators and surge equipment within days, every contractor's board fills with panic calls, and the preparation window collapses to whatever you can do yourself with a phone flashlight. Preparation is also cumulative — a system that got its spring maintenance, has healthy electrical components, and drains properly simply survives storm stress better than one limping into September with a weak capacitor and a half-clogged condensate line. Treat this article as the checklist for a calm Saturday in July, and the storm coverage on the news becomes something you watch rather than something you scramble through.
Get Storm-Ready Now, Not in the Cone
Every August, preparation calls arrive after the forecast cone appears — when schedules are already packed. Beat the rush: a pre-season system check-up plus surge protection is a single visit that covers most of this list. And if a storm does leave your system down, our repair team prioritizes no-cooling calls with 12 trucks across Central Florida.
AmeriTech Air Conditioning and Heating — Florida license CAC1817383, serving Greater Orlando since 2009. Call (407) 532-8000 or schedule online to get your system hurricane-ready. Whether you need the full pre-season inspection, surge protection installed at the panel and the condenser, or a post-storm damage assessment documented for your insurer, our team has been through every one of these seasons alongside our neighbors — and we would much rather see you in July than in the chaos after landfall.