AC Installation in Opelousas, LA
A new air conditioner in Opelousas will run from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers St. Landry Parish will get in touch.
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Seven months of cooling in Opelousas heat
Your air conditioner runs from April through October here, seven months of the year. Summer afternoons average 91°F, and that means long stretches where the compressor doesn't get much of a break. A new system has to hold up to that kind of run time year after year.
St. Landry Parish has also logged 52 damaging wind events and 5 hail events over the past ten years, with hail up to 1.25 inches. The outdoor unit sits exposed to that, so how it's installed and protected matters as much as the equipment itself. If you're installing new, any central air conditioner built since 2023 has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 5 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
A higher-efficiency unit would save about $30 a year to run in St. Landry Parish compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical St. Landry Parish home, from EIA household energy data, Louisiana fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Louisiana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors tested this contractor before handing out that license, and the board keeps a record of who holds one. The license belongs to the contractor, not to this one job, so it tells you the business behind the work has been checked, not that this particular installation gets any separate sign-off from the state.
That's what covers the contractor. What covers the installation itself is the permit and inspection from the local building office, which in most cities and parishes is required whenever an air conditioner gets replaced. The permit gets pulled before the work starts, and the inspection happens after, so someone besides the installer looks at what went in.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There is no single size that fits every house, and picking one off the square footage alone usually gets it wrong. A contractor works this out with a load calculation that looks at your square footage, insulation, window count and direction, and ceiling height. With summer afternoons here averaging 91°F, getting the size right matters more than it would somewhere cooler. Too big and it cools fast but leaves the house damp, too small and it runs constantly and still can't keep up on the hottest days.
- Should I replace the whole system or just the outdoor unit?
- In most cases you replace both the outdoor unit and the indoor coil together. Manufacturers match the two to work at a specific efficiency and capacity, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old coil usually means it never reaches the rating it's supposed to. A contractor can check whether your existing coil is compatible with a new unit, but if the system is old enough to need replacing outdoors, the coil is likely near the end of its life too. Age and the condition of the indoor coil are what decide this, not just what's sitting outside.
- Do HVAC contractors in Opelousas need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Louisiana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license, issued through the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. That license covers the contractor as a business, not each individual job. Installing an air conditioner also typically needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done.