The air conditioning and heat pump efficiency regulations that went into effect on January 1, 2015 will only affect new equipment, including both the indoor and outdoor units. General repairs to an existing system should not be affected unless the whole indoor or outdoor units are replaced. For example, the cost of replacing a part or general maintenance costs should not be affected.
It is not clear what will happen to prices of new systems as a result of these regulations but we have heard of a few instances of increases of around 5% or less which would translate into a few hundred dollars on the price of an entire system, depending on the size of the system. The new equipment is often a little larger too so if you have a space constrained situation you might have to also pay a little more for the installation. There are also a lot of old, pre-regulation systems still available on the market and these can be sold and installed through 6/30/16.
