HVAC Installation in Wilkes-Barre, PA
A new system here will heat from October through May and cool from July through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Luzerne County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of the year, your system is working
Winter nights around Wilkes-Barre average 19°F from December through February, and that kind of cold means a furnace or heat pump runs long hours to keep up. Add in the two months of summer afternoons near 79°F, and homes here need heat or cooling ten months a year. A new system has to be sized for both ends of that, not just the cold.
Storms are part of the picture too. Luzerne County saw 13 winter storms and 151 damaging wind events over the last ten years, and statewide, 15% of households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. A furnace with electronic ignition will not run until power is back, so how a new system handles an outage is worth asking about before it's installed.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 2 months
- July through August, it cools
- 19°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 79°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Pennsylvania requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration is a record of who is doing business in the state, not a test of what they know. The Bureau of Consumer Protection keeps the contractor's information on file, but nobody there checks a contractor's gas or refrigerant work before they take a job. Pennsylvania also does not let cities or towns set up their own HVAC license on top of this, so wherever you are in Luzerne County, this registration is the only state-level record that exists.
For a new heating and cooling system, the check that matters here comes from the local building office instead. Most cities and counties require a permit for a furnace, air conditioner or heat pump installation, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what confirms the gas connections and equipment were installed correctly, since Pennsylvania's registration does not cover that.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- When should I replace my HVAC system?
- Replace it when repairs start happening every year, or when the unit is old enough that one more repair isn't worth it. A furnace or air conditioner past 15 years is working harder than it should, and parts get harder to find the older the system gets. Rising bills with no other explanation are usually a sign the equipment is losing efficiency, not that something small is wrong. With heat needed here from October through May, a furnace that fails mid-winter leaves you without options fast, so it's worth acting before that happens rather than after.
- Should I replace my furnace and air conditioner at the same time?
- If both are old, yes, it usually makes sense to do them together. A furnace and air conditioner installed at different times often end up mismatched, and mismatched equipment can run less efficiently than a matched set. If one is much newer than the other, there's no reason to replace the newer one early just to match it. A contractor can look at the age and condition of each and tell you whether pairing them makes sense for your house.
- What happens during an HVAC installation?
- A contractor removes the old equipment, sets the new furnace or air conditioner in place, and connects it to the existing ductwork, gas line, refrigerant lines, and electrical. Once it's connected, they test it, check for proper airflow, and confirm it's running the way it should before calling the job done. If any ductwork or venting needs to be adjusted to fit the new equipment, that gets handled during the same visit. A contractor can walk you through what your specific installation will involve before the work starts.