AC Installation in Williston, ND
A new air conditioner in Williston will run from July through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Williams County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Two months of heat, then it stops
Williston only asks a lot of an air conditioner from July through August. Summer afternoons average around 80°F, so whatever gets installed isn't working against extreme heat most of the year, just those two months.
A short cooling season doesn't mean the outdoor unit has it easy the rest of the year. It sits outside through all of it, and the county has seen 56 hail events and 84 damaging wind events over the last ten years. Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet the federal minimum of 13.4 SEER2.
- 2 months
- July through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 80°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 56 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
Going above the federal minimum saves little here, about $10 a year.
Estimates for a typical Williams County home, from EIA household energy data, North Dakota fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
North Dakota requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
North Dakota's license is held by the contractor, not issued job by job, so it covers the business doing the work rather than any single installation. State law sets $4,000 as the line under which a job does not need a licensed contractor.
The license is what stands behind the contractor doing this installation. Most cities and counties in North Dakota also require a permit for an air conditioner installation, with an inspection once the work is finished. That inspection is a separate check, done by the local building office rather than the state, and it catches a bad connection or a unit set up wrong.
Sources: North Dakota Legislative Branch · North Dakota Secretary of State
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- It depends on your square footage, your insulation, and how many windows you have and which way they face, not on a rule of thumb. An undersized unit will run constantly and never quite catch up on an 80°F afternoon. An oversized one cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, so the house feels clammy. A contractor works this out with a load calculation on the actual house, not a guess based on square footage alone.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and furnace or air handler are old, replacing only the outdoor unit usually causes problems. The outdoor unit and the indoor coil are matched to work together, and pairing a new one with an old coil can hurt efficiency and shorten its life. A contractor can check the age and condition of the indoor equipment before telling you whether it needs to be part of the job.
- Do HVAC contractors in Williston need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes, North Dakota requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued through the Secretary of State. The license covers the contractor as a business, not each individual job. Smaller jobs are exempt from that requirement, but an air conditioner installation is not the kind of job that falls under that exemption, so this work needs a licensed contractor. Your local building office will also require a permit and an inspection once the installation is done.