Texas Cooling Help
A lit stone house with chimneys sits among trees on a rocky hilltop at dusk, under a dark red and blue cloudy sky with a bright patch near the horizon over a wide plain.

Mini Split Installation in Texas

Homes in Texas run cooling for more months of the year than in 45 of the other 49 states.

Tell us about the job

Takes about a minute. No obligation.

Step 1 of 3: Equipment
  • 94°Fsummer afternoon high where people live
  • 7 monthsof cooling, April through October
  • 41°Fwinter overnight low where people live
  • 5 monthsof heat, November through March

Electricity costs more here than most and a mini split runs on it all summer

  • Southern counties need about 27% more cooling than northern ones
  • Summer afternoons average 94°F where people live
  • Winter nights average 41°F where people live
  • Cooling runs April through October
  • 11,436 damaging wind events from 2015 to 2024
  • 33% of homes lost power a day or more in 2024
Relief map of Texas, its terrain lit, the neighbouring states fading into the dark
A flat grassland plain with scattered low trees, prickly pear cactus and a wire fence under a sunset sky of dark orange-lit clouds, with a bright strip of sky near the horizon.
  • Each room gets its own thermostat, so you cool the bedroom and leave the hallway alone
  • No ductwork means no duct losses, so the air leaving the unit is the air that reaches the room
  • The outdoor unit and indoor head connect through a small hole in the wall, not an attic duct run
  • A properly sized unit holds the room steady instead of cycling on and off
  • The filter sits behind the front cover, where you can pull it out and rinse it
View from a dark interior through a large wood-framed window with curtains at both sides, looking onto a bright, washed-out landscape of spreading trees, low shrubs and pale sandy ground.

March is the month to get this done. Cooling runs April through October in Texas, seven months where the system needs to work right from the first hot day. Install it in March and you're not choosing a contractor in a hurry, and you're not living with a window unit while you wait.

Texas runs cooling longer than 45 of the other 49 states, so a mini split here spends most of the year working, not sitting idle. A unit sized right for the room holds its temperature instead of switching on and off, and that steadiness matters more when the system rarely gets a break.

The right size depends on where in Texas you live

Texas isn't one climate, and your mini split should match the part you're in

A mini split in Hidalgo County is doing close to three and a half times the work of one in Dallam County, and the gap between the state's southern and northern counties runs about 27% a year. Sizing it right depends on where in Texas you are, not just that you're in Texas. The same model that holds steady in Amarillo might run harder and longer near the border, and a contractor who knows which part of the state they're in will size the unit for your cooling load, not the state average.

What does a mini split in Texas face?

  1. How hot do summer afternoons get?

    94°Faverage afternoon high where people live

    Alaska66°F

    Arizona101°F

  2. How cold do winter nights get?

    41°Faverage overnight low where people live

    North Dakota4°F

    Hawaii65°F

  3. How many months does the cooling run?

    7 monthsof cooling a year

    Alaska0 months

    Hawaii12 months

  4. What does electricity cost?

    14.94¢per kWh (kilowatt hours, the unit on an electric bill), what homes paid in 2024

    North Dakota11.51¢

    Hawaii42.86¢

  5. How often do storms hit?

    292severe weather events per county from 2015 to 2024

    Alaska5

    Wyoming1,057

  6. How many homes lost power for a day or more?

    33%of homes in 2024

    Arizona7%

    Maine54%

A black outdoor air conditioning condenser unit with a louvered fan grille, shown against a plain beige background.

The outdoor unit here doesn't get much of a break

The compressor outside is the part doing the lifting, and in Texas it runs long hours across a long season. At a 94°F afternoon, a mini split sized right for the room still has to keep pushing heat out of a house that's absorbing it all day. That outdoor unit sees less downtime between April and October than the same model would almost anywhere else in the country, since the indoor head only calls for what the room loses. An undersized compressor run this hard shows wear sooner than it would somewhere milder, which is why getting the size right matters more here than in most places.

What the rating on the label actually tells you

That yellow EnergyGuide label lists a SEER2 (seasonal energy efficiency ratio under the 2023 test, an AC's cooling efficiency over a season) number, and it's a ratio, not a size. It tells you how much cooling you get for the electricity you put in, nothing about how much cooling the unit can actually deliver. A high SEER2 unit that's too big or too small for the room still runs poorly, cycling on and off or never quite catching up. The number also comes from lab conditions, steady temperature, steady load, which isn't how a compressor spends its day outside your house. There's also HSPF2 (heating seasonal performance factor under the 2023 test, a heat pump's heating efficiency over a season) on the same label if the unit heats as well as cools, and it works the same way, a ratio for heating output against power drawn. Neither number tells you what the unit will cost to run. That depends on how long it runs and how hard, which comes down to sizing and the climate it's working in, not the rating on the sticker.

Texas homes already run on electricity

Most homes in Texas heat with electricity, 61.2% of them. Gas comes in well behind at 34.5%, and bottled or LP gas and fuel oil barely register. A mini split fits a home already wired for electric heat without adding a gas line or venting a combustion appliance. If your home already heats on electricity, a mini split just adds a second job for the wiring already there, not a second fuel to plan around.

Electricity costs more here than in most states, and a mini split runs on it all summer.

Tell us about the job

Takes about a minute. No obligation.

Step 1 of 3: Equipment

Fill out the form once and hear from a licensed contractor who knows this state's sizing.