Mini Split Installation in Hot Springs, AR
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 Garland County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
What a mini-split has to handle here in Garland County
Eleven months out of the year, your mini-split is either heating or cooling. Winter nights average 33°F from December through February, and summer afternoons run around 90°F, so the system barely gets a rest between seasons.
Any new unit installed now has to meet the federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating. That's the floor, not a feature, so it's worth asking what rating the one going on your wall actually carries. Worth knowing too that this area sees real winter storms and wind events most years, and with most homes here heating with electricity, a power outage means no heat until it's back on.
- 6 months
- November through April, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 33°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 any single job, so it covers the business doing the work rather than this particular installation. Arkansas keeps this rule to itself, too. Cities and counties cannot add their own HVAC license on top of it, so the state's license is what applies here in Garland County.
That license does not stand alone on this job. Putting in a new mini-split needs a permit from the local building office in most cities and counties, along with an inspection once the work is finished. The permit and inspection are what check the installation itself, separate from whatever the contractor's license already covers.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- Is a mini split worth it?
- For most homes here, yes, especially in a room your main system does not reach well. A mini split gives you a heat pump that both heats and cools, which matters given six months of heat and five months of cooling here. Winter nights average 33°F, and a modern mini split is built to keep working down into cold weather rather than switching to backup heat the way some systems do. If you already have working central heat and air, a mini split makes the most sense as a way to cover one space well, not replace what you have.
- How many rooms can a mini split cover?
- A single indoor unit is sized for one room or one open area. A multi-zone system runs several indoor units off one outdoor unit, and each indoor head has its own thermostat, so every room it serves can run at a different temperature at the same time. How many zones make sense for a given house depends on the layout and how the rooms connect, which a contractor can walk through on site.
- Can a mini split heat a whole house?
- It can, if the system is sized and zoned for the whole house rather than just one room. That takes an indoor unit in enough rooms to cover the layout, and an outdoor unit sized to run all of them together, especially with winter nights here averaging 33°F. A contractor will need to look at the house to size that correctly. Used the way most people use it, one or two units for the rooms that need help, it is not meant to replace whole-home heating.