AC Installation in Bay St. Louis, MS
A new air conditioner in Bay St. Louis will run from April through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Hancock County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Bay St. Louis asks a lot of a new air conditioner
Cooling season here runs April through October, seven months of the year. Summer afternoons average 90°F, and your air conditioner has to hold that back day after day for most of the year, not just a few weeks.
Any new central air conditioner installed today has to meet a federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2. The outdoor unit also has to stand up to what comes with the weather here. Hancock County has seen 20 damaging wind events and 8 hail events over the past ten years, with one hailstone as large as 1.5 inches.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 8 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 Hancock County compared with a new unit at the federal minimum.
Estimates for a typical Hancock County home, from EIA household energy data, Mississippi fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Mississippi requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Mississippi State Board of Contractors licenses the contractor, not the job. That means the state has tested the person or company doing the work and keeps a record of them, but it does not test or approve each installation separately. The license is on the contractor, and it stays there no matter how many jobs they take on.
For an air conditioner install, that license is what stands behind the person doing the work. It does not replace the local permit and inspection that most cities and counties in Mississippi require for this kind of job. The permit gets a building official to look at the installation once it is done, which is separate from anything the state license covers.
Source: Mississippi State Board of Contractors
- What size air conditioner does my house need?
- There is no single answer without a load calculation done on your actual house. A contractor looks at your square footage, how much insulation you have, how many windows you have and which way they face, your ceiling height, and how many people live there. Get this wrong and the unit runs badly for as long as you own it. Too big and it cools the air fast but shuts off before it pulls the moisture out, so the house feels damp. Too small and it runs constantly on your 90°F afternoons and still cannot keep up. Ask the contractor to walk you through the numbers rather than just naming a tonnage.
- 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. The two are matched to work as a pair, and pairing a new outdoor unit with an old coil usually means it never runs at the efficiency it is rated for, sometimes voids the warranty outright. A contractor can tell you the age and condition of your coil and whether it can pair with a new outdoor unit at all. If your system is old enough to need this decision, the coil is usually old enough to replace too.
- Do HVAC contractors in Bay St. Louis need a state license to work on my home?
- Yes. Mississippi requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license through the State Board of Contractors, and that license covers the contractor, not just the one job. Installing an air conditioner also usually needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. Ask to see the contractor's license number before any work starts, and confirm the permit gets pulled.