AC Installation in Bloomington, IL
A new air conditioner in Bloomington will run from June through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers McLean County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Four months of real heat in Bloomington
Summer afternoons here average 84°F, and your air conditioner runs from June through September to keep up with that. A new unit needs to be sized right for those months, not just for a mild stretch in spring.
McLean County also sees its share of hail and wind, 47 hail events and 136 damaging wind events over the past ten years. The outdoor unit sits exposed to that, so where it goes and how it's protected matters as much as the model you choose. Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet the federal minimum of 13.4 SEER2.
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 84°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 47 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
A higher-efficiency unit would save about $30 a year to run in McLean County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical McLean County home, from EIA household energy data, Illinois fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
In Illinois, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
That means whether the contractor needs a license depends on the city or county the house sits in, not on any state list. Some places license HVAC contractors on their own and keep records of who is qualified. Others have no local requirement at all, so the protection has to come from somewhere else.
For an air conditioner installation, that somewhere else is usually the permit. In most cities and counties, putting in a new air conditioner needs a permit from the local building office, and the work gets inspected once it's done. That inspection is what stands between the homeowner and a bad installation here, not a license, since the state does not issue one.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your home's square footage, how much shade and insulation it has, how many windows it has and which way they face, and how many people live there. A unit that is too big cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the humidity out, so rooms feel clammy. A unit that is too small runs constantly and still struggles on the hottest afternoons. A contractor will do a load calculation on your actual house rather than go by rule of thumb, and that is the only way to get the number right.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and outdoor unit are different ages or different efficiency levels, replacing only the outdoor unit can leave you with a mismatch that hurts performance and shortens the life of both. The indoor and outdoor parts are matched to work together, so when one is old and worn, the other usually is not far behind. A contractor can check the age and condition of both and tell you whether replacing just the outdoor unit makes sense for your system or whether the whole thing should go at once.
- Do HVAC contractors in Bloomington need a state license to work on my home?
- Illinois does not set a state license requirement for residential HVAC work. That job is left to individual cities and towns, so it comes down to what your city requires. Check with your city before you hire someone.