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A Heat Pump Might Be Right for Your Home—Here’s What to Know
The contractor you hire to install your heat pump could be more important to your overall experience (and cost) than the heat pump itself. “As everyone’s trying to price-shop around, you can find yourself with a real low-level contractor,” said Dan Zamagni of Boston Standard. “Probably the third-biggest purchase people make in their homes is heating and cooling systems, and you wouldn’t treat a car or a home purchase in the same way. People try to nickel-and-dime that, but you do get what you pay for.” In other words, if you’re paying tens of thousands of dollars for someone to make your home more comfortable, more affordable, and better for the planet, you should make sure they do it right.
While pricing varies, a heat pump system is likely going to cost you between $8,000 and $30,000, depending on how many units you need to cover your home. There is also a wide range of rebates, tax credits, and other financing incentives available to offset that cost, depending on where you live. Regardless of location, a heat pump can help reduce the utility bills in nearly every US household by a median amount between $300 to $650 per year, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Those savings add up over time, too.
Some anecdotal examples we’ve come across in conversation during this research:
- One member of the Wirecutter staff, in a large historic home in Pennsylvania, paid about $38,000 for a heat pump setup that included six interior mini-split units. That system supplemented an existing central heat system; the home had no central air.
- Another Wirecutter staff member, in Oregon, paid around $22,000 for three in-wall units plus a ducted system in the attic, all running off the same condenser.
- A Wirecutter staff member in Boston paid about the same price for three mini-splits and two exterior condenser units, while another Boston-based colleague spent half that for a single interior unit in a converted industrial condo complex.
These prices aren’t just for the hardware—they include labor costs and insulation, along with any specialized work such as architectural planning, wall construction, masonry installation work, and so on. While it’s a wide range, it should hopefully give you a rough idea of what to expect when you start talking to contractors.
Of course, not everyone has an easy time finding the help they need. So we’ve put together some other guidance to keep you on the path.
Know what you’re looking for at the start
The fact that you’re reading this guide already gives you a good head start. For this guide, we spoke to several contractors, all of whom told us the same thing: Only about half of their heat pump customers come to them knowing ahead of time that they’re specifically looking to install a heat pump.
“Just knowing that heat pumps are an option is helpful,” 3H Hybrid Heat Homes co-author Alexander Gard-Murray told us. “I think the most important thing consumers can do is just to actively try to get a contractor who’s up on heat pumps, who can give them a good picture of what’s available with the current models, and the current climate zones.”
That being said, we don’t recommend making all of your decisions before you find a contractor. You might have your heart set on a specific heat pump model only to find that parts and service for it are hard to come by in your area (which is especially the case in a world that’s already facing other supply-chain issues). A good contractor will know what’s available, how its performance would compare with that of more traditional HVAC options, and what’s best for the climate you live in.
Ask around for recommendations
One of the best ways to find a contractor is to find someone else who worked with a contractor they liked. If you see a friend or a neighbor with heat pumps at their home, ask them about their experience. Check your local community social media forums on Facebook or Neighbors, as well. People may even recommend that you try a different contractor, or they may offer some advice on unexpected issues that surprised them, and all of that is helpful, too.
“Find someone you know who had a heat pump installed and ask them about it,” Gard-Murray said. “Basically anyone who installs a heat pump gets really excited about it, and you start hearing more and more. It’s like an avalanche of excitement about heat pumps. I think consumer experience is the biggest thing selling them.”
Look for preferred dealers
Many heat pump manufacturers, including Carrier, Daikin, LG HVAC, and Mitsubishi / Trane, all have some kind of preferred partnership program for independent contractors. To qualify, those contractors have to meet a certain level of standards in working with the equipment and thus meet the manufacturer’s ideal expectations. If a contractor has earned this seal of approval from one or more manufacturers, that’s a good sign.
Contractors’ membership in such programs is not just a testimony to their knowledge and skill, as these contractors also tend to offer better warranties on parts and labor (and have the relationships to make sure they can get the parts they need). Although most standard Trane ductless heat pumps come with a 10-year warranty (PDF), for example, a heat pump installed by a certified Trane Comfort Specialist usually has a 12-year warranty for the equipment, plus additional coverage for parts and labor directly through your contractor.
Get multiple quotes in writing
A good sign of a reliable contractor is their willingness to prepare for you a written document detailing the potential project and costs, with no commitment or payment from you. A representative might come by your home for a site visit and give you an eyeball estimate of the project costs, but if they won’t commit it to paper—before you start negotiating—that’s a huge red flag.
Before Mike Ritter settled with Boston Standard for his heat pump renovation, the two parties went through six rounds of project proposals over the course of three months before finding one that worked. Boston Standard presented a few different ideas—ducted versus ductless systems, different zoning options, and such—as well as the costs associated with each. Those documents even included information on warranties, as well as the potential rebates that Ritter could expect once the project was done. It was that sort of attention to detail that convinced him to take the leap, despite the higher up-front cost. “We didn’t know much about heat pumps beforehand,” Ritter told us. “We were planning on just replacing the boiler, but as we talked with Boston Standard, we started to realize it might actually work to put in a heat pump and get air conditioning out of the equation, as well.”
Check the contractor’s attention to detail
Heat pump systems are impressively modular, and there should be a way to make them work in almost any home situation. But this is also your home we’re talking about, and you’re the one who will have to live with whatever changes the contractor makes to it. A good contractor should be on the lookout for any potential problems or hiccups from the very first site visit. And that means you should be getting answers to lots of questions. Are they paying attention to the amperage on the circuit breaker, for example? Are they giving you a preliminary idea of how and where they might install the units? Are their project proposal quotes accurate and detailed?
“A lot of contractors can find themselves sort of slapping these systems in without really taking the right measurements and things that should be taken into account,” Zamagni of Boston Standard told us. He specifically mentioned things such as the software the contractor uses to size your system, and whether they’re factoring in elements like windows and weatherization. There are also acoustic considerations: Although heat pumps are typically quieter than other HVAC systems, the outdoor units still have fans and compressors and other mechanical parts that could cause problems in an alleyway or next to a bedroom window. These are the sort of questions you should ask—but you should also look for a contractor who looks for things you didn’t think to look for.
Talk about the long-term investment
Choose a contractor who provides more than just labor. “Consumers should be asking contractors—and doing the math themselves—to understand the long-term savings, and not just the up-front costs,” said Alexander Gard-Murray.
A good contractor will understand the significance of this long-term investment and should be able to walk you through it, as well. Ideally, they also should be able to help you figure out how to pay for it, whether that’s by offering financing options or helping you secure one of the many heat pump rebates that could be available, depending on where you live. In Massachusetts, for example, the Mass Save program offers rebates for heat pump installation projects up to $16,000, depending on your income level, as well as seven-year, zero-interest loans of up to $50,000 to help cover the remaining costs, including weatherization. A good contractor should at least be aware of the full range of options available to you and help you navigate the requirements.
One other thing to keep in mind is that these funds don’t always come from the same place or arrive at the same time. Some states provide rebates at or before the point of sale, while others may require you to submit a form and wait for a check to come back to you in the mail. There are also tax-based incentives, like the credits available that come in the form of tax credits, so you might not even notice them until next April (by which point you’ll hopefully find yourself pleasantly surprised by the unexpected surplus).
Consider the full package
When you’re looking at the total cost of your proposed project, think about what you’re actually getting out of the deal. It’s not just the heat pump itself. It’s also the customer service, it’s also the warranty, and it’s also the expertise and guidance on how to make your home as energy efficient as possible. Some contractors even offer additional services, such as handling all of that complex and confusing financial paperwork. That’s a major reason Mike Ritter went with Boston Standard for his heat pump renovation: The company handled all of the paperwork as part of the proposal, which meant he didn’t have to wait around for the rebate check to process.
“We collect everything from the customer, we process the rebates for them, we submit everything,” explained Zamagni of Boston Standard. “It takes the burden away from the homeowner, who may be overwhelmed with the process overall. It helps with our whole package, so it’s basically a turnkey system for them.”
While working on this guide, I did hear a few anecdotes about people who weren’t able to get the rebates they were expecting or planning on because of some miscommunication or confusion with the contractor, or some mishandled paperwork. How often this actually happens isn’t clear, but it’s still a good reminder that some things are worth being more selective on when you hire, especially when you’re already spending tens of thousands of dollars on an HVAC system that’s supposed to last you 15 years or more.
Don’t rush into anything
“A lot of these [HVAC replacement] decisions are made under duress, like when a system fails in the middle of winter,” said Robert Cooper, president and CEO of Embue, a company that specializes in sustainable options for multi-family buildings. “You’re going to replace it with the quickest thing that you can get somebody in there. You’re not going to shop around.”
Although we can’t prevent those kinds of emergencies from happening, we can encourage you to start thinking about your future heat pump ahead of time so you’re not ending up in a situation that forces you into a 15-year commitment to an inefficient fossil-fuel heater. It’s completely normal to take a few months to negotiate over project quotes, and then again to schedule your installation based on the availability of equipment and labor. If a potential installer tries to pressure you into acting fast, especially if you’re not in a heating or cooling emergency, that’s another red flag.
Aside from living with the equipment for 15 years, you may also be entering a long-term relationship with your contractor. If anything goes wrong, you’ll continue seeing them as long as you’re covered under warranty.
