HVAC Installation in Aberdeen, SD
A new system here will heat from September through May and cool from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Brown County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Aberdeen asks a lot of a heating and cooling system
Winter nights here average 6°F from December through February. A new furnace has to hold a house against that kind of cold for nine months, September through May. Summer only runs three months, with afternoons around 81°F, but the system still has to switch over and handle it.
That is nine months of heating and three months of cooling, which means something in this house is running all twelve months of the year. Almost half of homes here heat with gas, and whatever system goes in has to meet the federal minimum efficiency rating for the equipment. Brown County has also logged 42 winter storms and 187 damaging wind events over the last ten years, so a new system is going in on a site that sees real weather, not just cold and heat.
- 9 months
- September through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 6°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 81°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
In South Dakota, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
South Dakota has no state HVAC license. The rule is left to cities and towns, so whether a contractor needs a local license depends on the town in Brown County where the house sits. There is no state test behind any of it and no state record to speak of either way.
For an installation like this, what stands in for that is the permit process. In most cities and counties, putting in a new furnace, air conditioner or heat pump needs a permit from the local building office, and the work gets inspected once it is done. That inspection is what checks the gas line, the wiring and the refrigerant connections were done right, since a bad connection is the dangerous part of this job.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- When should I replace my HVAC system?
- Replace it when it can no longer keep up, not just when it breaks down once. A furnace that struggles on a 6°F night, or short cycles, or needs a repair every winter is telling you something. Age matters too. A furnace or air conditioner in its late teens is a poor bet to get through nine months of heating and three months of cooling here every year without more trouble. If a contractor tells you the repair costs a large share of a new system, that is usually the point to stop patching it.
- Should I replace my furnace and air conditioner at the same time?
- If both are old, yes, and here is why. Your furnace and air conditioner often share the same blower and coil, so replacing one can mean the new part has to work with an old one it was not matched to. That can mean less efficiency and more strain on whichever unit stayed behind. Doing them together also means one round of ductwork checks and one inspection instead of two. If only one has actually failed, a contractor can tell you whether the other is worth pairing with it now or waiting on.
- What happens during an HVAC installation?
- A contractor starts by sizing the new furnace and air conditioner to the house, not just matching what was there before. The old equipment comes out, and the new furnace, coil and outdoor unit go in, along with any duct or venting changes the new equipment needs. Gas, electrical and refrigerant lines get connected and tested before anything is closed up. In most cities and counties around Aberdeen, this work needs a permit from the local building office and an inspection once it's done, since South Dakota leaves HVAC licensing to the city or town rather than the state. Once it passes inspection, the contractor runs the system through a full cycle to check it's heating and cooling the way it should.