+1 570 955 3538Plumbing and HVAC Firms in Lackawanna County, With the Heating Calendar
Lackawanna County has 72 plumbing, heating and air-conditioning firms with paid staff, 3.3 per 10,000 residents. 43 of them have fewer than five employees. Scranton's normal year has 5,740 heating degree days and only 790 cooling degree days, so demand leans to heat. January, February, December carry 54% of the heating load. Wake County, North Carolina (Raleigh) has 395 such firms and 3.5 per 10,000 residents.
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Degree days by month
| Month | Heating degree days | Share of the year | Cooling degree days | Share of the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 1,147 | 20.0% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Feb | 970 | 16.9% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Mar | 830 | 14.5% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Apr | 452 | 7.9% | 8 | 1.1% |
| May | 177 | 3.1% | 50 | 6.4% |
| Jun | 33 | 0.6% | 153 | 19.4% |
| Jul | 3 | 0.0% | 271 | 34.2% |
| Aug | 8 | 0.1% | 217 | 27.4% |
| Sep | 96 | 1.7% | 82 | 10.4% |
| Oct | 375 | 6.5% | 9 | 1.1% |
| Nov | 668 | 11.6% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Dec | 983 | 17.1% | 0 | 0.0% |
A degree day measures how far the average temperature sits from 65°F: heating degree days count the cold, cooling degree days the heat. NOAA's normals average 1991 through 2020 at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport. The numbers describe weather, not call volume. The airport is one point in a county of hills.
The trade in eleven counties
| County | Plumbing, heating and A/C firms | Per 10,000 residents | Firms with 1–4 employees | Employees (noise-infused) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayne | 26 | 5.1 | 14 | 126 |
| Monroe | 64 | 3.8 | 53 | 262 |
| Northampton | 114 | 3.6 | 77 | 715 |
| Carbon | 23 | 3.5 | 18 | 120 |
| Wake | 395 | 3.5 | 192 | 6,724 |
| Wyoming | 9 | 3.5 | 7 | 30 |
| Lackawanna | 72 | 3.3 | 43 | 525 |
| Luzerne | 94 | 2.9 | 52 | 754 |
| Schuylkill | 41 | 2.9 | 26 | 267 |
| Lehigh | 89 | 2.4 | 51 | 1,879 |
| Susquehanna | 6 | 1.6 | 6 | 7 |
A firm is one location with at least one paid employee, from the Census 2023 file. The Census adds noise to employee counts, so those are estimates. Per-resident rates for Wake use another population source.
What the weather and the counts say together
Heat dominates the calendar. The three highest months hold 54% of the year's heating degree days, and the year's cooling degree days equal 14% of its heating degree days. From October through April, cooling accounts for 2% of the cooling total, so a cooling-only crew has little weather-driven work in those months.
Most firms are small. 60% of Lackawanna firms have fewer than five employees. In Raleigh the share is 49%, with 395 firms.
Pay. The BLS lists 71 establishments and 623 jobs in Lackawanna County for the second quarter of 2025, at an average weekly wage of $1,286. Wake County shows $1,493.
If you spend ad money, spend it before the cold months, not during them. Our Google Ads and Local Services Ads management sets that up with call tracking, and our lead follow-up automation answers the after-hours calls a no-heat night brings.
Where the numbers come from
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, county file, all industries. Open data: census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp. Pulled 2026-10-06.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), 2025 Q2, private ownership, county files. Open data: data.bls.gov/cew. Pulled 2026-10-06.
- NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, monthly, station WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON INTL AP (USW00014777). Pulled 2026-10-06.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2019–2023, table B01003 (population). Pulled 2026-10-06.
- USAspending.gov, spending by geography for Wake County, North Carolina (population field), federal fiscal year 2025. Used only as the Wake County population. Pulled 2026-10-06.
FAQ
How many HVAC companies are in Lackawanna County?
County Business Patterns 2023 lists 72 plumbing, heating and air-conditioning firms with paid employees. The BLS count for 2025 Q2 is 71. The sources use different definitions and dates.
What is a heating degree day?
It is the number of degrees the day's average temperature falls below 65°F, added up over the month. A day averaging 45°F adds 20.
When is the busy season in Scranton?
The normals put the heating peak in January. The cooling peak is July. Your own call log will tell you more than any normal.
Are these counts firms or people?
Locations with paid employees. A one-person shop with no employees is not in the file.
