AC Repair in Springfield, IL
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Sangamon County will get in touch.
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Five months of Springfield summer, and the storms in between
Your air conditioner works from May through September here, with afternoons averaging 85°F. That is five straight months of the compressor cycling on and off most days to keep up. The more it runs, the more wear lands on the parts that start it and keep it running, like the capacitor and the contactor.
Sangamon County has also logged 110 hail events and 198 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail as large as 3.25 inches. Hail that size can bend or puncture the thin fins on your outdoor unit's coil, and high wind can knock the unit out of level or send debris into it. If your AC is running weak or not at all after a storm, the outdoor unit is the first place to look.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 85°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 110 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 198 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $30 a year off cooling for a typical Sangamon County home.
Estimates for a typical Sangamon County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Illinois fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when a part like a capacitor or contactor has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the compressor has failed or the system uses R-22 refrigerant, which is no longer made.
In Illinois, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
In Sangamon County, that means checking whether Springfield or whatever town the house sits in has its own licensing rule for HVAC contractors. Some do, some don't, and the requirement changes at the town line. There's no state list to check instead, because Illinois doesn't keep one.
What does apply everywhere, regardless of what the town requires, is the federal rule on refrigerant. An air conditioner repair almost always means opening the refrigerant side of the system, and the technician doing that work has to hold EPA Section 608 certification. That's a federal credential, not a local one, and it exists because refrigerant is handled the same way in every state.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most of the time it's a dirty air filter or low refrigerant. When the filter clogs, airflow drops and the coil can freeze over, so what comes through the vents feels warm or barely moves. Low refrigerant almost always means a leak somewhere in the line, and that won't fix itself. If the filter looks clean and the vents are still warm, a contractor needs to check the refrigerant charge and the coil.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The condensate drain line is probably clogged. Your AC pulls moisture out of the air as it cools, and that water is supposed to run out through a drain line to the outside. Algae and dirt build up in that line over time and block it, so the water backs up and drips inside instead. A frozen coil that's thawing can also leave water behind, which usually points back to low airflow or low refrigerant.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check the thermostat first. Make sure it's set to cool and set below the room temperature, and swap the batteries if the screen is dim or blank. If the thermostat looks fine, check the breaker for the outdoor unit, since a tripped breaker will keep it from starting. If the breaker keeps tripping when you reset it, stop trying and have a contractor look at it.