Mini Split Installation in Sioux Falls, SD
A new system here will heat from September through May and cool from June through August every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Minnehaha County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
What Minnehaha County asks of a mini-split
Winter nights here average 10°F from December through February, and the heat has to run September through May, nine months of the year. Summer only asks for three months of cooling, with afternoons around 81°F. That means whatever you install is a heating system first, and it needs to hold up on the coldest nights, not just the mild ones in between.
A mini-split installed new has to meet 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, the federal minimum for split-system heat pumps since January 2023. In a place where the unit works most months on the heating side, the HSPF2 number matters as much as the cooling rating, if not more. This county also sees its share of winter storms and wind, so the outdoor unit needs a mounting and placement that can take that without shifting or icing over.
- 9 months
- September through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 10°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 81°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
In South Dakota, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
In Minnehaha County, whether the installer needs a city license depends on which city the house is in. Sioux Falls and the smaller towns around it set their own rules, so the same mini-split job can be treated differently depending on the address. There is no state test behind any of it, and no state record to check either way.
For this job, the permit is the protection. In most cities and counties, installing a mini-split needs a permit from the local building office, and an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what stands in for a license here, covering how the lines, wiring and mounting were installed.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- Is a mini split worth it?
- For most homes here, yes, especially for a room your furnace and central air don't reach well. A mini split runs on a heat pump, so it can both heat and cool that space, which matters here since homes need one or the other 12 months a year. It also lets you heat or cool just the room you're using instead of running the whole system for one space. A contractor can look at the room and tell you whether it fits what you need.
- How many rooms can a mini split cover?
- A single indoor unit is built for one room or one open area. If you need to cover more rooms, you'd use a multi-zone system, which runs several indoor units off one outdoor unit, with each indoor unit sized to its own room. How many zones a house can support depends on the outdoor unit and the layout, so that's something a contractor sizes room by room rather than a number that holds for every home.
- Can a mini split heat a whole house?
- It can, but it takes more than one indoor unit, since each unit only heats the room or area it's mounted in. Winter nights here average 10°F, so the outdoor unit and each zone need to be sized for that cold before you'd count on a mini split as your only heat source. Getting that sizing right for a whole house is something a contractor needs to work out room by room, not a number that holds for every home.