AC Installation in Custer, SD
A new air conditioner in Custer will run from July through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Custer County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Two months of real heat, then done
Custer County only asks for cooling in July and August, with afternoons averaging 81°F. A new air conditioner here doesn't run hard all year, but it has to work when those two months hit.
The county has also seen its share of hail and wind, 244 hail events and 158 damaging wind events over the last ten years, with hail up to 2.75 inches recorded. An outdoor unit sits exposed to that. Any new central air conditioner installed has to meet the federal minimum of 13.4 SEER2, so efficiency is already built into what a contractor can install.
- 2 months
- July through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 81°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 244 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 13.4 SEER2
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Going above the federal minimum saves little here, about $20 a year.
Estimates for a typical Custer County home, from EIA household energy data, South Dakota fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
In South Dakota, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
Custer County does not run its own HVAC licensing program, so whatever rule applies comes from the city or town the house sits in rather than from the state. Nothing about this work is tested or tracked at the state level, so there is no state record of who is qualified to install an air conditioner anywhere in South Dakota.
For this job, the protection here comes from the local building office rather than from a license. In most cities and counties, installing an air conditioner needs a permit before the work starts and an inspection once the new unit is in place. That inspection is what confirms the installation was done correctly, not a license number.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your home's square footage, how much shade it gets, how many windows it has, and how well it's insulated, not just floor space alone. A contractor works this out with a load calculation rather than a guess. Going too big wastes money and cools poorly, cycling on and off instead of running steady, so it's worth getting this step done properly rather than matching the old unit.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your furnace or air handler is old, replacing just the outdoor unit can cause problems, since the indoor and outdoor parts are matched to work together. Mismatched systems run less efficiently and can wear out sooner. A contractor can check the age and condition of the indoor unit and tell you whether it makes sense to replace both at once or if the indoor unit still has life left in it.
- Do HVAC contractors in Custer need a state license to work on my home?
- South Dakota has no state HVAC license. Licensing for this kind of work is left to cities and towns, so whether a license is required depends on where your house is. Most cities and counties also require a permit for installing an air conditioner, along with an inspection once the work is done, so ask your contractor how that's handled in your area.