AC Installation in Spearfish, SD
A new air conditioner in Spearfish will run from July through July every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Lawrence County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
One month of real heat, but plenty of hail
Summer afternoons in Spearfish average 78°F, and July is really the only month a new air conditioner has to work hard. That is a short cooling season compared to a lot of the country, so the unit you install does not run under heavy load for long stretches.
What this area does get is storms. Lawrence County has logged 187 hail events over the past ten years, with hailstones up to 4.5 inches, plus 93 damaging wind events in that same stretch. An outdoor condenser sits exposed to that. Any new central air conditioner installed here also has to meet the federal efficiency minimum of 13.4 SEER2.
- 1 months
- July through July, your air conditioner is on duty
- 78°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 187 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 $10 a year.
Estimates for a typical Lawrence 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.
Lawrence County does not run its own HVAC license either. Whether a contractor needs one comes down to whether the city or town where the house sits has that kind of rule on the books. Some do, some don't. Where a town has no such rule, there is no local license standing behind the work, and nothing at the state level fills that gap.
For an air conditioner installation, most cities and counties in South Dakota require a permit from the local building office before the work starts and an inspection once it is done. That inspection checks the work itself. It is not a license and it does not depend on who the contractor is.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- It depends on your square footage, your insulation, how many windows you have and which way they face, and your ceiling height. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on home size alone. Putting in a unit that is too big cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, so the house feels clammy. Too small and it runs constantly on the hot afternoons and still cannot keep up. Summer highs here average 78°F, so most homes do not need an oversized system, but the only way to know your number is to have someone measure your house.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and furnace are old too, replacing just the outdoor unit usually causes problems. The outdoor unit and the indoor coil are matched to work together, and pairing a new condenser with an old coil can mean poor cooling and a warranty that will not hold. If the indoor coil is near the end of its life, replacing both at once avoids paying for a new coil again soon after. A contractor can look at your coil and tell you whether it is a match for a new outdoor unit.
- Do HVAC contractors in Spearfish need a state license to work on my home?
- South Dakota has no state HVAC license. Licensing is left to cities and towns, so whether a contractor needs a local license depends on where your house sits. What you can count on almost everywhere is the permit. Installing a new air conditioner typically needs a permit from the local building office, and the work gets inspected once it is done. That inspection is worth having, since it means someone besides the installer checked the work.