HVAC Repair in Shakopee, MN
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from June through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Scott County will get in touch.
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Eleven months of work a year, most of it in the cold
Your furnace runs from October through May here, and on winter nights that average 10 degrees, it runs hard. The burner cycles on and off for hours at a stretch to hold the house steady, and each start puts wear on the igniter and the flame sensor. When one of those finally gives out, the furnace won't light at all, and you find out on the coldest night of the year.
Summer is shorter, June through August, with afternoons around 80 degrees. It's less time on the air conditioner, but Scott County has seen 53 damaging wind events and 35 winter storms over the past ten years, and storms bring power loss. Most furnaces and air conditioners start back up on their own once power returns, but if yours doesn't, that's worth a call before you assume the worst.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 10°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $130 a year off heating and cooling for a typical Scott County home.
Estimates for a typical Scott County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Minnesota fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
Minnesota has no state license for HVAC contractors.
There is no state license or registration for HVAC contractors in Minnesota, so there is no state test behind the name on the truck and no state record to check. That is true whether the work is happening in Scott County or anywhere else in the state. The state leaves this trade unlicensed, which means whatever confidence you have in the contractor has to come from something other than a card issued in St. Paul.
For a repair like this, the part that still gets checked is the gas connection, since a bad connection is the dangerous part of the job. Anyone working on the gas side of a furnace is working with something that has to be sealed and vented correctly, and that is true no matter what state licenses or does not license the trade. Minnesota's answer here is simply that there is no state license standing behind any of it.
Source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- Why is my heat not working?
- Most often the igniter has failed, the flame sensor is dirty, or the pilot light went out. Furnaces run almost every day here from October through May, and that constant cycling wears an igniter out over a few years. If your thermostat display is blank or won't hold a setting, check its batteries before anything else. When the furnace runs but blows cold air, or won't start at all, a contractor can test the igniter and sensor and tell you which one quit.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- The blower is moving air, but something between it and your rooms is not doing its job. A dirty filter blocks airflow across the coil, and if that coil ices up, the air coming out turns warm instead of cold. Check the filter first. A refrigerant leak can cause the same warm-air symptom, but only a contractor can test for that and add refrigerant, since it takes gauges and training to do safely.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat first. Make sure it's set to heat or cool as needed, the batteries are good, and the setting is actually below or above the room temperature. Next check the filter and pull it out if it's gray with dust, since a clogged filter can stop a furnace or air conditioner from working right. Then check your breaker panel for a tripped switch, especially after a storm. Minnesota sees plenty of wind events that knock out power, and some systems need a manual reset at the thermostat or a switch near the unit once power is back. If all of that looks fine and the system still isn't heating or cooling, that points to something inside the unit that needs a contractor to diagnose.