HVAC Installation in Chesapeake, VA
A new system here will heat from November through April and cool from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Chesapeake will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months of the year, your system is working
Chesapeake only gets a full month off. Heat runs November through April, six months, with winter nights averaging 33°F. Cooling picks up right after, May through September, five months, with afternoons averaging 87°F. Whatever you install has to handle both ends of that without a break to recover.
More than half of homes here heat with electricity, so a new system needs to be sized right for those winter nights, not just the summer heat. And storms are part of living here too. Chesapeake has logged 58 damaging wind events and 8 winter storms over the past ten years, and across Virginia, 22% of households lost power for at least a day in 2024. A system that restarts on its own when the power comes back matters in a place like this.
- 6 months
- November through April, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 33°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 87°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Virginia's license is tied to the contractor, not the job itself. The Board for Contractors tests and records the person or company, and that record follows them from one house to the next. Work under $1,000 falls outside this requirement, but installing a heating and cooling system runs well past that mark, so the contractor doing this job needs to hold that license.
In most cities and counties, a job like this also needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is separate from the license. The license tells you the contractor was tested and is on record with the state. The permit and inspection tell you the installed system itself was checked once the work was finished.
Sources: Virginia General Assembly · Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation
- When should I replace my HVAC system?
- Replace it when it can no longer keep up, not on a fixed schedule. Watch for repairs that keep coming back, a system that runs longer than it used to, or rooms that never quite reach the temperature you set. An older system is worth having a contractor look at closely even if it still runs, since homes here need heat or cooling 11 months of the year and a failure in the coldest or hottest stretch leaves you without either.
- Should I replace my furnace and air conditioner at the same time?
- If both are old, replacing them together usually makes sense. A furnace and air conditioner installed at different times often were not matched to each other, and pairing an aging unit with a new one can mean the new one never runs at its best. A contractor can tell you whether your current pair is matched and whether replacing one alone is worth doing, or whether both need to go.
- What happens during an HVAC installation?
- A contractor removes the old furnace, air conditioner, or heat pump and sets the new equipment in place, then connects it to the ducts, the electrical circuit, the gas line if there is one, and the refrigerant lines. They test the system to confirm it heats, cools, and cycles correctly before calling the job done. In most cities and counties this work needs a permit from the local building office and an inspection once it is finished, and Virginia requires the contractor doing it to hold a state license. A contractor will price the job once they see the house.