Heat Pump Installation in Ruston, LA
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 Lincoln Parish will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months a year of work in Ruston
Your heat pump earns its keep here. Winters average 37°F and homes need heat November through March. Summers run hot, with afternoons averaging 92°F and cooling needed May through September. That leaves only two months when the system can rest.
A new split-system heat pump has to meet 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating if it was built after January 1, 2023. In Lincoln Parish, wind is the bigger risk to plan around. The area has logged 51 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and about half of Louisiana households lost power for at least a day in 2024. Anyone installing now should ask how the new system handles a power interruption, since a heat pump does nothing until the power comes back on.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 37°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 92°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Louisiana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors tests contractors before they can hold this license, and the license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. That means the person on this job should already carry the same license before your work starts, not one issued after the fact.
Beyond the license, a heat pump installation in most cities and counties still needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is separate from the state license and checks the installation itself, not the contractor's credentials.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- It depends on what you're comparing it against and what matters most to you. A heat pump handles both heating and cooling, so it replaces a furnace and an air conditioner with one system. Ruston winters average 37°F at night, mild enough that a heat pump can carry the full heating load without much strain. A furnace burns gas or uses electric resistance to make heat, and it can push higher temperatures out of the vents on the coldest nights. If you already have ductwork built around a furnace, a contractor can tell you whether switching makes sense for your house.
- What's the difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner?
- An air conditioner only cools. A heat pump cools the same way, but it also runs in reverse to heat the house. Both use a compressor and refrigerant to move heat from one place to another, and both need the same kind of ductwork and outdoor unit. An air conditioner sits idle from November through March. A heat pump keeps working through those months as the main source of heat.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes, a heat pump works fine in Ruston's winters. Nights here average 37°F from December through February, and a heat pump pulls heat from outdoor air even when it's cold, since it only needs air warmer than the refrigerant inside the system. Heat pumps do lose some capacity as the temperature drops, but Ruston doesn't see the extreme cold that pushes a heat pump to its limit. Any split-system heat pump installed new today has to meet a federal minimum of 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, a baseline efficiency rating.