Here’s how much heat pumps cost to install

Heat pumps are pretty darn cool (and hot). These electric, efficient home appliances can both heat and cool a home, replacing both a traditional air conditioner and a home heating system like a furnace, boiler, or baseboard heating. 

Since heat pumps are about 3 times more efficient than traditional heating systems, homeowners making the switch from electric baseboards or electric furnaces, fuel oil, or propane can save about $898 per year! So, what’s not to love?

Heat pumps provide massive savings because each system is sized to meet the specific heating and cooling needs of a home. And since every home is unique, estimating the costs of upgrading can be difficult.

Your upfront cost will depend on many factors that are out of your control: the system you’re replacing, your home’s construction, and the temperature outside, just to name a few. 

But don’t worry. Starting now, you can identify your likely cost, begin preparing, and avoid future sticker shock when you make the switch. 

This guide will help you estimate the upfront costs of your heat pump system.

Heat pump HVAC: whole-home

A whole-home heat pump provides all of the heating and cooling for a home. This can be a centrally ducted heat pump or a ductless system (a mini-split heat pump typically with multiple indoor units, and sometimes multiple outdoor units). If your home uses forced hot air or central air conditioning, you already have ductwork and vents. This makes you a great candidate for a centrally ducted whole-home heat pump.

The data plotted below represents national estimates of total project costs (equipment plus installation costs) for a whole-home heat pump installation. These costs have been adjusted to represent present-day national averages by correcting for inflation and location-specific materials and labor costs. To learn more about the datasets we used, see our Upfront Cost of Home Electrification report. 

Our modeled cost estimates for the 20th to 80th percentile of whole-home air source heat pumps are as follows:

Whole-home heat pump

• <1,000 square foot home: see single-zone estimates below

• 1,500 to 2,500 square foot home: $17,000 - $23,000 (median $19,500)

• 2,500 to 5,500  square foot home: $22,500 - $28,000 (median $25,000)

• 5,500+ square foot home: $26,000 - $30,000 (median $29,000)

Note: Range represents the 20th to 80th percentile.

We used this model to estimate median costs for a variety of home types in locations around the country. The results are as follows:

Heat Pump HVAC: single-zone

A mini-split heat pump consists of one outdoor unit and one indoor unit, or one outdoor unit and multiple outdoor units. If your home doesn’t have existing ductwork, or if it has old ductwork you’d like to avoid having to upgrade, ductless mini-splits may be a good option for you!

A single-zone heat pump is a mini-split heat pump that uses one outdoor unit and one indoor unit, or “head,” also referred to as air handlers. It’s called a single-zone heat pump because it can heat and cool one zone: a large room, a couple of connected rooms, or an open-floor-plan apartment up to about 1,000 square feet.

A multi-zone heat pump is a mini-split heat pump that can heat and cool multiple zones using one outdoor unit and multiple indoor units. 

The biggest factor for determining the cost of your mini-split installation is the number of indoor units you’ll want to install to, which depends on how many zones you want to cover. 

The data plotted below are total project costs (equipment plus installation costs) for a single-zone heat pump installation, derived from our Massachusetts Air-Source Heat Pump dataset. These costs have also been adjusted to represent present-day national averages by correcting for inflation and location-specific materials and labor costs.

In the data plotted to the left, the boxed area represents the 20th to the 80th percentile of project costs. The yellow line in the middle represents the median, or 50th percentile, cost. Based on this, we would expect the middle range (20th to 80th percentile) for an installed single-zone air source heat pump to be:

Single-zone heat pump

• $5,400 - $8,500 (median $6,600)

Note: Range represents the 20th–80th percentile.

Other factors

For a number of reasons, it’s impossible to know exactly how much your heat pump installation might cost before an HVAC contractor visits your home. But we can project how much you might spend using the biggest factors that determine the cost of upgrading:

Location, location, location

The more heating/cooling capacity you need, the more you’re likely to spend. Homes in moderate climates or with better insulation require less heating/cooling capacity and are likely to fall at the lower end of the ranges above. Homes in colder climates or in regions with high labor costs are likely to fall at the higher end of these ranges. Homeowners in parts of the country with higher labor costs are also more likely to receive quotes at the higher end of these ranges. Supply chain constraints, the familiarity of local HVAC contractors with heat pump technology, and the degree of price competition within local markets will also affect pricing, but are not possible to model with our available data.

Heat pump readiness and preferred system

Since homes with better insulation require less heating/cooling capacity, getting an energy audit and identifying weatherization improvements is a great first step to get ready for a heat pump. 

Depending on how much energy you use and the size of your heat pump, you may also need to upgrade your electric panel or wiring to support the increased demand. If you don’t have existing ductwork, or it needs to be replaced, your costs will be higher. 

Hybrid heat pump installations with continued fossil-fuel backup in any size home and region will cost less than whole-home installations.

Now that you know how much heat pumps cost, learn how much you could save each year by upgrading. Check out our Personal Electrification Planner to get a custom breakdown of potential energy savings and build your plan to go electric.