AC Installation in Champaign, IL
A new air conditioner in Champaign will run from June through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Champaign County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Four months of real heat, every year
Summer afternoons in Champaign County average 84°F, and a new air conditioner has to hold that line for four months, June through September.
The county has also logged 223 damaging wind events and 70 hail events over the past ten years, some with hailstones up to 3 inches across. An outdoor unit sits exposed to all of that, so the cabinet and coil fins matter as much as the size of the system. Any new central air conditioner installed now also has to meet the federal efficiency minimum of 13.4 SEER2, so that baseline is already built into what you're offered.
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 84°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 70 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 Champaign County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Champaign 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.
Champaign County does not run its own HVAC license either, so whether a contractor needs one comes down to the city or township where the house sits. Some local governments require a license to do this work inside their limits, others don't, and the requirement stops at that line on the map. There is no statewide list or exam behind any of it.
What covers this job here is the permit. Installing a new air conditioner in most cities and counties calls for a permit from the local building office, and an inspector checks the finished work before it's signed off. That inspection is where someone other than the installer looks over how the unit was set and wired, separate from whatever the city does or doesn't require by way of a license.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There is no single size that fits every house. It depends on your square footage, your insulation, how many windows you have, and which way they face. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on home size alone. Going bigger than what the calculation calls for is not a safety margin. It actually makes the unit cool the air fast and shut off before it pulls the humidity out of your house, so the air feels clammy even at the temperature you set. Homes here need cooling June through September, and a properly sized system will keep up through those months without short cycling.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and furnace are old, replacing only the outdoor unit is usually not worth it. The outdoor condenser and the indoor coil are matched to work together. Pairing a new condenser with an old coil can mean lower efficiency and a shorter life for the new equipment. A contractor can tell you the age and condition of your indoor coil and whether it will pair properly with a new outdoor unit, or whether the whole system should go at once.
- Do HVAC contractors in Champaign need a state license to work on my home?
- Illinois does not license HVAC contractors at the state level for residential work. It leaves that to individual cities and towns. Whether Champaign requires a local license is worth checking directly with the city before you hire someone. Ask any contractor you're considering to show proof of whatever license or registration applies here.