AC Installation in Russellville, AR
A new air conditioner in Russellville will run from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Pope County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Five months of heat, and storms in between
Russellville gets five months of cooling, May through September, with summer afternoons averaging 89°F. That is a long stretch for a new system to run well, day after day, without shortcuts in the installation.
Pope County has also seen 35 hail events and 80 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 3 inches. An outdoor unit sits outside through all of that, so the install matters as much as the equipment. Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2, so the baseline efficiency is already set. What is left to get right is sizing it for your house and putting it in correctly.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 89°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 35 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 $10 a year.
Estimates for a typical Pope 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 belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, and Arkansas is the only one who issues it. Counties and cities in Pope County can't layer on their own HVAC license requirement on top of that, so the state's test and record are the same wherever you are in the county.
For an air conditioner installation, that license is what stands behind the person doing the work, but it's not the only check on the job itself. Most cities and counties still require a permit from the local building office for a new air conditioner, with an inspection once it's in, so someone independent of the installer looks at the finished work.
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 much shade your house gets, and how well it's insulated, so there's no single number that fits every home. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a guess based on the old unit's size. This matters here more than in mild climates, since summer afternoons in Russellville average 89°F and a system that's too small will run flat out and still fall behind. Too large a unit is its own problem, cooling the air fast but shutting off before it pulls the moisture out, leaving the house feeling clammy.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- If the indoor and outdoor units are matched and the indoor coil is still in good shape, replacing just the outdoor unit can work. But the two halves are engineered to run together, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old indoor coil often means you don't get the efficiency or the reliability either piece was built for. Age matters too. New central air conditioners have to meet a 14.3 SEER2 minimum, so if your indoor unit dates from before that, a contractor can tell you whether it's worth keeping or whether replacing both makes more sense for your house.
- Do HVAC contractors in Russellville need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Arkansas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, so anyone installing or servicing your air conditioner should be able to show one.