AC Installation in Mitchell, SD
A new air conditioner in Mitchell will run from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Davison County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Three months of heat, then hail to sit through
Mitchell only asks for cooling from June through August, three months a year, with summer afternoons averaging 84°F. A new system does its work in that stretch and sits idle the rest of the year.
Sitting idle outdoors still means sitting exposed. Davison County has seen 36 hail events and 72 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hailstones as large as 1.75 inches. The outdoor unit takes that weather whether it's running or not, so the coil and cabinet need to hold up on their own. Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 13.4 SEER2.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 84°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 36 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 Davison 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.
South Dakota does not run a state HVAC license. Since that rule is left to cities and towns, whether Davison County has one, or a nearby town does, is a local matter, not something with a state record behind it. There is no state license to point to here.
For an air conditioner installation, the protection that exists in Davison County comes from the local building office. Most cities and counties require a permit before the work starts and an inspection once it is done, and that inspection is what confirms the installation was done right.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There's no single number that fits every house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, which looks at your square footage, insulation, windows, and how much shade the house gets, not just square footage alone. An undersized unit will run constantly and never quite catch up, while an oversized one cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the humidity out, so the house feels clammy. Get a contractor out to measure the house rather than going by the size of the old unit or a rule of thumb.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and outdoor unit were installed together and are close in age, replacing just the outdoor unit usually isn't a good idea. Manufacturers match the coil and condenser for a reason, and mixing an old coil with a new condenser can mean the system never reaches its rated efficiency, sometimes voiding the warranty on the new equipment. If the indoor coil is old or was never a matched set to begin with, a contractor can tell you whether it's worth replacing on its own or pairing the two so they run right together.
- Do HVAC contractors in Mitchell need a state license to work on my home?
- South Dakota doesn't issue a state HVAC license. The state leaves that to individual cities and towns, so whether a license is required depends on where the house sits. What the local building office will want either way is a permit for the air conditioner install and an inspection once the work is done, so it's worth confirming the contractor is pulling that permit rather than skipping it.