AC Installation in Mountain Home, AR
A new air conditioner in Mountain Home will run from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Baxter County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Five months of real heat, and hail to think about
Mountain Home asks a new air conditioner to work May through September, five months a year, with summer afternoons averaging 88°F.
Baxter County has seen 46 hail events and 51 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail recorded up to 2.75 inches. An outdoor unit sits outside through all of that. Any new central air conditioner installed today also has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 46 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 $20 a year.
Estimates for a typical Baxter County home, from EIA household energy data, Arkansas fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Arkansas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is issued to the contractor, not to the job itself, so it covers the person or company doing the work rather than being a one-time approval for your installation. Arkansas also keeps this at the state level. Baxter County and its cities cannot layer on their own HVAC license, so the state's license is the one that applies here.
For an air conditioner installation, that license is what stands behind the work itself. On top of it, most cities and counties require a permit from the local building office for this kind of job, along with an inspection once the installation is finished. That permit and inspection are separate from the license and check the installation itself, not the contractor's credentials.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, your ceiling height, how many windows you have and which way they face, how much insulation is in your attic and walls, and how many people live in the house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a rule of thumb based on square footage alone. An oversized unit cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the humidity out, so the house feels clammy even at the right temperature. With summer afternoons here averaging 88°F for five months of the year, getting the size right matters more than it would somewhere cooler.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If your indoor coil and outdoor unit were matched when installed, replacing only the outdoor unit can throw off that match and hurt both efficiency and the unit's ability to remove humidity. Refrigerant and coil designs have also changed over the years, so an old indoor coil may not pair correctly with a new outdoor unit at all. A contractor can check what you have and tell you whether the indoor coil is still compatible. If your system is older, replacing both at once usually makes more sense than trying to mix new and old parts.
- Do HVAC contractors in Mountain Home need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Arkansas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license before they can do this work. Ask to see it before you sign anything.