Mini Split Installation in Cabot, AR
A new system here will heat from November through March and cool from May through September every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Lonoke County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
What a mini-split in Cabot has to handle
A mini-split here runs most of the year. Homes in Cabot need heat from November through March and cooling from May through September, ten months of the twelve. Winter nights average 34°F, so the heat pump side does real work most winter evenings. Summer afternoons average 90°F, and the unit has to hold that back for five straight months.
Any mini-split installed new has to meet the federal minimum for split-system heat pumps, 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating. That is the floor, not a special ductless rule. With power outages hitting close to a quarter of Arkansas households for a day or more in 2024, and this area seeing 12 winter storms and 80 damaging wind events over the past ten years, a mini-split also needs to come back on and run correctly once the power is restored.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 34°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Arkansas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license belongs to the contractor, not to this one job. Arkansas tests and records the contractor, and no county or city in the state can add its own HVAC license on top of that. So whoever installs the mini-split should hold that state license, and it works the same way in Lonoke County as anywhere else in Arkansas.
The license does not cover the install itself. That comes from the local building office, which in most cities and counties requires a permit for this kind of work and an inspection once it is done.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- Is a mini split worth it?
- For the right house, yes. A mini split heats and cools without ducts, so it works well in a room addition, a garage, or a house that never had central air. Cabot needs heat from November through March and cooling from May through September, so a system that does both from one unit gets used most of the year here. A contractor can look at the house and say whether it fits better than ducted equipment would.
- How many rooms can a mini split cover?
- A single outdoor unit can run one indoor head or several. Multi-zone systems support more than one indoor head on one outdoor condenser, each one heating and cooling its own room on its own thermostat. How many a given house can support depends on the size of the outdoor unit and the load of each room, which is something a contractor works out room by room.
- Can a mini split heat a whole house?
- It can, if it is sized and placed for that from the start. A mini split is a heat pump, and heat pumps can heat an entire house when enough indoor heads are installed to cover every room and the outdoor unit is sized for the coldest nights expected. Cabot winter nights average 34°F, so the system has to be sized for real cold, not just mild days. This is where a load calculation for the specific house matters, since guessing at the size leads to rooms that never get comfortable.