HVAC Installation in Ottawa, IL
A new system here will heat from October through May and cool from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers LaSalle County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
What a system in LaSalle County has to handle
Your furnace here works October through May, eight months a year. Winter nights average 19°F from December through February, cold enough that a furnace runs long and often to hold the house steady. Most homes in the area heat with gas, and a new furnace has to be sized for those cold nights, not the mild ones in between.
Summer asks less of the system, but it still has three months of work to do, June through August, with afternoons averaging 83°F. Eleven months out of the year, this house needs heat or cooling from something. LaSalle County has seen 19 winter storms and 124 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and in 2024 sixteen percent of Illinois households lost power for at least a day. Worth asking a contractor how a new system handles an outage before you need the answer.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 19°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
In Illinois, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
There is no state HVAC license in Illinois. Licensing is left to the cities and towns, so whether a contractor needs one, and what it takes to get it, depends on where the house sits in LaSalle County. There is no statewide test or record to point to either way.
What applies to this job is the permit process. Installing a new furnace or air conditioner is the kind of work that in most cities and counties needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what checks the gas connections and the rest of the installation were done right. It is not a license, and it does not depend on one.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- When should I replace my HVAC system?
- Once your furnace or air conditioner is breaking down often, or a contractor tells you the heat exchanger or coil has failed, replacement makes more sense than another repair. Homes here run the furnace from October through May, so it's worth getting an aging system looked at before that stretch starts, not during it. A contractor can tell you honestly whether the age and condition of your equipment still justify another repair.
- Should I replace my furnace and air conditioner at the same time?
- If both are near the end of their life, yes, it usually makes sense to do them together. A furnace and air conditioner installed at the same time are matched to work with each other, and a contractor only has to open up your ductwork and wiring once. That said, if one is old and the other was replaced recently, there is no reason to pull out a system that still has years left in it. A contractor can look at the age and condition of both and tell you honestly whether pairing the work makes sense for your house.
- What happens during an HVAC installation?
- A contractor first removes the old furnace, air conditioner, or both, along with any parts being replaced, like the coil or the vent hood. Then the new equipment goes in, and the contractor connects it to your ductwork, gas line or electrical circuit, and the vent or flue that carries exhaust outside. After that, the system gets fired up and checked, refrigerant lines are checked for leaks, gas connections are tested, and the thermostat is set up and tested. It helps to know that part of the house will be without heat or cooling while the work is underway.