Mini Split Installation in Opelousas, LA
A new system here will heat from November through March and cool from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers St. Landry Parish will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
A mini-split here runs almost year round
In Opelousas you get almost no break. Cooling runs April through October, seven months, with afternoons averaging 91°F. Heat takes over November through March, and winter nights average 43°F. That leaves the unit idle only a few weeks a year, if that.
A new system bought today has to meet the federal minimum for a split-system heat pump, 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating. Most homes in St. Landry Parish heat with electricity, so that heating side of the rating matters as much as the cooling side. Wind is the other thing to plan for. The parish has logged 52 damaging wind events over the past ten years, so it's worth asking your contractor how the outdoor unit and its mounting will hold up.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 7 months
- April through October, it cools
- 43°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Louisiana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license comes from the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. It covers the contractor's standing to do this kind of work in the state, not this particular mini-split install by itself.
Beyond the license, the install itself gets checked through the local building office. Most cities and parishes require a permit for this kind of work, along with an inspection once it is done, and that inspection is what confirms the mini-split went in the way it was supposed to.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- Is a mini split worth it?
- For a lot of homes here, yes. Opelousas needs cooling from April through October and heat from November through March, so a system that handles both jobs is working nearly year round. A mini split also keeps running room by room if part of the house loses power or a duct problem shows up elsewhere, which matters in a state where about half of households went at least a day without power in 2024. Whether it makes sense for your house depends on how it's laid out now, so a contractor should walk through that with you before you decide.
- How many rooms can a mini split cover?
- A single outdoor unit can run one indoor head or several, depending on the system. A single-zone system covers one room or open area. A multi-zone system runs several indoor heads off one outdoor unit, each with its own thermostat, so you can heat or cool rooms separately instead of all at once. How many zones your house actually needs comes down to square footage, layout, and how the rooms are used, which is something a contractor sizes on site.
- Can a mini split heat a whole house?
- It can, if there are enough indoor heads placed to reach every room. A mini split is a heat pump. It works the same in reverse, pulling heat into the house in winter instead of moving it out in summer. Winters here are not extreme, with lows averaging 43°F, which is well within the range a heat pump handles well. Whole-house coverage means planning zones for the whole floor plan, not just one or two rooms, so this is worth laying out with a contractor before installation.