HVAC Repair in Sioux Falls, SD
Homes here need heat from September through May and cooling from June through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Minnehaha County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat, three months of cooling, and not much break in between
Your furnace in Minnehaha County works from September through May. On winter nights that average 10°F, it runs long and often, and the burner cycles on and off for hours at a time. Each cycle puts a small strain on the igniter and the ignition control, and a system that old will eventually fail to light. When it does, the house goes cold fast at 10°F.
Summer asks less of your air conditioner, only June through August, but afternoons averaging 81°F still put the compressor and the coil to work every day for three months straight. Minnehaha County has also seen 36 winter storms and 144 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Wind like that can knock an outdoor unit out of alignment or drive debris into it, and a storm that cuts power can leave a furnace or air conditioner needing a reset before it runs again.
- 9 months
- September through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 10°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 81°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $100 a year off heating and cooling for a typical Minnehaha County home.
Estimates for a typical Minnehaha County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, South Dakota fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
In South Dakota, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
South Dakota keeps no state license for HVAC contractors. Whether this contractor is licensed depends on the city or town where the house sits, since that is left to the cities and towns to decide, not on any test or record the state keeps.
For a repair on a system that burns gas, the connections are the part where a mistake matters most, and whoever checks that work here does so under whatever rule the local town has set, not a state one. There is no state license standing behind this repair, only whatever the town where the house sits requires.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat and the power to the furnace. If the thermostat screen is blank, check the breaker, and check the switch that looks like a light switch near the furnace, since that cuts power to it too. If those are fine, listen for the furnace trying to start. Gas furnaces need power, gas, and a spark or hot igniter to light, and if any one of those is missing the burners never come on. At 10 degrees outside overnight, a furnace that will not hold heat needs a look soon, since the house will lose ground fast.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- If the blower is running but the air is not cold, the problem is usually with the outdoor unit, not the fan inside. Check that the outdoor unit is actually running and that air is moving through its coil, not blocked by grass clippings, leaves, or a fence too close to it. Check the filter too, since a clogged filter starves the system of airflow and can freeze the coil. If the outdoor fan is not turning at all or you see ice on the lines, shut the system off and have it looked at before running it more.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat first, that it is set to the right mode and a temperature that should call for heat or cooling. Check the breaker for the system and, on a furnace, the power switch near the unit itself. Change the filter if it looks dirty, since a clogged filter causes both weak heating and weak cooling. After that, note what the system is actually doing, whether it runs and blows the wrong temperature, or does not turn on at all, since that tells a contractor a lot before they even arrive.