Heat Pump Installation in Columbus, MS
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 Lowndes County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of work a year
Columbus asks a heat pump to run most of the year. Winters average 35°F at night from December through February, mild enough that a heat pump keeps up without much strain. Summers average 91°F in the afternoon, so the same unit carries the cooling load from May through September. Between the two, it is working 10 months out of the year.
More than 6 in 10 homes here heat with electricity, which puts real weight on whatever gets installed. A new split-system heat pump has to meet 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, the federal minimum since 2023. Lowndes County has seen 110 damaging wind events and 6 winter storms over the past ten years, and across Mississippi, 30% of households lost power for at least a day in 2024. A heat pump built for this place has to handle the load most months ask of it, and keep working when the grid does not.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 35°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Mississippi requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Mississippi tests contractors through the State Board of Contractors before it hands out this license, and the Board keeps a record of who holds one. The license belongs to the contractor, not to this job, so it tells you the business has met the state's standard, not that this particular installation has been checked.
For that, most cities and counties in Mississippi require a permit from the local building office when a heat pump is installed, along with an inspection once the work is done. The license says the contractor is qualified. The permit and inspection, where the local office requires them, say this installation was done right.
Source: Mississippi State Board of Contractors
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- A heat pump does something a furnace can't, it cools your home in summer as well as heating it in winter, so you get one system instead of two. Around here you need heat from November through March and cooling from May through September, ten months of the year, so a single system covering both has real value. A furnace only burns fuel to make heat, it has no cooling mode at all. Whether a heat pump makes sense for your house still depends on your ductwork and how your home is set up, and a contractor can walk through that with you.
- What's the difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner?
- An air conditioner only cools. A heat pump cools the same way in summer, but it can also run in reverse to heat your home in winter. Mechanically they share most of the same parts, the compressor, the coils, the refrigerant loop, which is why a heat pump can often go where a central air conditioner would.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes, a heat pump keeps pulling heat from outside air even when it's cold, though it works harder as the temperature drops. Winter nights here average 35°F, which is well within the range a heat pump handles without trouble. In colder climates than this one, some heat pumps pair with a backup heat source for the coldest nights, but a contractor can tell you whether that's worth considering for your house.