Heat Pump Installation in Hattiesburg, MS
A new system here will heat from November through March and cool from May through October every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Forrest County will get in touch.
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Eleven months of work a year in Hattiesburg
Your heat pump in Forrest County works almost year round. Heat from November through March, cooling from May through October. Only one month sits idle. Winter nights average 40°F, so the unit pulls heat out of the outdoor air every night for five months straight. Summer afternoons average 91°F, and the same system carries that load the other six months.
Most homes here heat with electricity, so this one machine is doing both jobs for most of the house, most of the year. Any new split-system heat pump has to meet 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, the federal minimum as of 2023. Forrest County also sees a lot of damaging wind, and close to a third of Mississippi households lost power for a day or more in 2024. Worth asking your contractor how the unit you choose comes back after an outage, since some heat pumps restart on their own and some need a reset.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 6 months
- May through October, it cools
- 40°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.
The state tested this contractor before handing out the license, and the Board of Contractors keeps a record of who holds one. That license belongs to the contractor, not to this particular job, so it tells you the person or company doing the work has already met the state's standard before they ever showed up at your house.
For the heat pump install itself, the license is what stands behind the work, but it is not the only check. Most cities and counties still require a permit for a heat pump installation, and an inspection once the work is done, separate from anything the state license covers. That inspection is where the local building office looks at what was actually installed at your address.
Source: Mississippi State Board of Contractors
- Is a heat pump better than a furnace?
- For most homes here, yes. A heat pump moves heat instead of burning fuel to make it, so the same unit heats your home in winter and cools it in summer, which a furnace alone can't do. Winter nights here average 40°F, mild enough that a heat pump can carry the heating load without much strain. A furnace still has an edge where winters bring long hard freezes, but that's not what this area sees.
- What's the difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner?
- An air conditioner only cools. A heat pump does the same job in summer, moving heat out of your home, but it can also run in reverse and move heat into your home in winter. The two look almost identical inside, with a compressor and coils, but the heat pump has a reversing valve that lets it switch directions. That's why a heat pump covers both your heating and cooling, while an air conditioner only covers cooling.
- Does a heat pump work in cold weather?
- Yes. A heat pump pulls heat from the outside air even when it's cold outside, and it loses capacity as the temperature drops, but that becomes a real concern only in much colder climates than this one. Winter nights here average 40°F from December through February, well within the range a heat pump handles on its own. Homes here only need heat for 5 months a year, so the stretch of cold a heat pump has to cover is short.