Heat Pump Installation Cost Calculator
A ducted heat pump costs about $7,570 keeping your gas furnace as backup and $9,151 all-electric, on a 2,000 square foot house in Atlanta. Against replacing a furnace and an air conditioner separately — $9,974 from our own models on the same wages — the all-electric heat pump is 92% of the cost, not more. And the federal tax credit closed to work placed in service after 31 December 2025.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost to install the heat pump
$7,625
typical · range $5,716 to $9,534 · 3.5 tons · 16 SEER2 / 8.5 HSPF2 · $2,179 per ton
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 80% of this figure comes from modelled material prices — each line shows its own uncertainty.
Priced from bls.gov Aug 2026how every line is sourced
The one input that changes the answer for you.
The heat pump does the mild weather, which is most of the year, and the furnace takes over when it gets cold enough that the heat pump stops being the cheaper way to make heat. Cheapest to install of the two, because the furnace and its ducts stay where they are. It needs a control that knows which machine is cheaper at any given outdoor temperature, and setting that crossover honestly is the whole art of it.
Two capacity steps and a better coil. The gain that matters in heating is not the seasonal number but that it holds more of its output at 30 °F, which is where most of a mixed-climate winter actually sits.
Possible when there was already a split system there and the pipe is sound and the right size. It has to be flushed: oil and acid left from the old equipment will destroy the new compressor, and nothing covers that.
| Tier | HSPF2 | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Federal minimum, 14.3 SEER2 / 7.5 HSPF2 | 7.5 | $6,697 |
| Two-stage, around 16 SEER2 | 8.5 | $7,625 |
| Cold-climate, inverter-driven | 10 | $8,885 |
1 / 5
The figure above is already calculated. Each step just makes it more yours, and you can stop at any of them.
There is no federal tax credit on this any more, and most pages still say there is
The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit gave up to $2,000 on a qualifying heat pump. The IRS states that the credit is allowed for property “placed in service on or after Jan. 1, 2023, and before December 31, 2025”. Work commissioned today does not fall inside that window. Almost every cost page you will read on this subject was written while it did, still quotes the $2,000, and has not been touched since — which means the figures they compare against ours are net of a discount that no longer exists. We are not tax advisers and this is not tax advice: it is the date the IRS publishes, linked below. State and utility programmes are separate, still exist in many places, and are not netted off anything on this page either.
One machine, or two?
A heat pump heats and cools. The alternative is a furnace and an air conditioner. All four figures come from this site’s own models, on the same wage data and the same regional adjustment.
| What you install | Cost |
|---|---|
| Furnace, replaced on its own | $4,177 |
| Air conditioner, replaced on its own | $5,603 |
| Both of them | $9,781 |
| Heat pump keeping the gas furnace as backup | $7,625 |
| Heat pump with an all-electric air handler | $9,234 |
On this house the all-electric heat pump is 94% of the cost of the two machines — $546 less to install, not more. That surprises people, and the reason is simple: one outdoor unit, one indoor unit, one crew, one day. The furnace-plus-AC route buys two heat exchangers, two sets of controls and a flue. ⚠️ This is the cost of installing, not of owning. What it costs to run afterwards depends on your own gas and electricity rates, which are neither national nor stable, and this site does not invent them.
Why it needs backup, in numbers
A heat pump is sized by the cooling load, because a machine big enough for the worst night of the winter would be far too big for July — it would cool the air fast, shut off, and never run long enough to take the humidity out. So this 3.5-ton unit is nominally 42,000 BTU/h, and the house screens at about 70,000 BTU/h when it is properly cold. That is 60% covered, leaving roughly 28,000 BTU/h for the backup. And nominal capacity is measured at 47 °F: below that it falls, most steeply on the cheapest tier. That gap is the entire argument for a cold-climate unit, and the entire reason a first winter on resistance backup can produce an electricity bill nobody warned you about.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outdoor heat pump, two-stagesystem tons, for a two-stage unit | 3.5ton | $3,080–$5,075 | estimated±24% |
| Matched indoor coil on the existing furnace1 in a dual-fuel installation | 1each | $560–$1,150 | estimated±35% |
| Dual-fuel control and outdoor sensor1 in a dual-fuel installation | 1each | $120–$340 | estimated±48% |
| Controls, wiring and crossover setup1.5 hours on every installation | 1.5hour | $86–$92 | sourced |
| Disconnect, whip and breaker for the outdoor unit1 per installation | 1each | $55–$140 | estimated±44% |
| Electrical work1.5 hours, or 5.5 when a backup feeder is run | 1.5hour | $88–$95 | sourced |
| Flushing and pressure-testing the existing line set1 when the existing line set is reused | 1each | $30–$85 | estimated±48% |
| Bi-flow filter drier and service valves1 per installation | 1each | $35–$90 | estimated±44% |
| Evacuation and refrigerant chargesystem tons | 3.5ton | $140–$368 | estimated±45% |
| Raised stand or pad for the outdoor unit1 when a new pad or stand is set | 1each | $55–$160 | estimated±49% |
| Refrigerant recovery from the old system2 hours when old equipment is removed | 2hour | $114–$123 | sourced |
| Removal, setting and connection18 trade hours for dual fuel, 24 when the air handler is replaced | 18hour | $1,027–$1,103 | sourced |
| Old equipment removal and disposal1 when the old equipment is taken away | 1each | $45–$130 | estimated±49% |
| Start-up, charge verification, defrost and backup staging3 hours on every installation | 3hour | $171–$184 | sourced |
| Mechanical and electrical permit1 when the job is permitted | 1each | $110–$400 | estimated±57% |
| Total | $5,716–$9,534 | ±25% |
Where these numbers come from
- The tax credit, and why most pages get this wrong
- IRS, Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit states that “The credit is allowed for qualifying property placed in service on or after Jan. 1, 2023, and before December 31, 2025”, and separately that “You can claim the credit for improvements made through December 31, 2025”. Work placed in service in 2026 is outside that window. We flag it prominently for a specific reason: nearly every heat pump cost page on the web was written while the credit existed and has not been revisited, so their headline figures are net of $2,000 that you will not receive. Nothing on this page is netted against any incentive at all. State and utility programmes are a separate matter, vary constantly, and we do not track them — but they are worth an hour of your time before you sign anything. We are not tax advisers. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- One machine against two, from the same wage data
- Our furnace model puts a standard gas replacement at $4,123 on this house, and our air conditioner model puts a minimum-efficiency changeout at $5,851 — $9,974 for the pair. The all-electric heat pump is $9,151, or 92% of that. The three figures share the same BLS wage, the same benefit load and the same contractor markup, which is what makes the ratio worth anything; comparing our model against a magazine price would not be. Why it comes out that way is unglamorous: one outdoor unit, one indoor unit, one crew, one day. The furnace-plus-AC route buys two heat exchangers, two sets of controls and a flue. ⚠️ This is installation cost, not cost of ownership.
- The efficiency floor, which here is national
- 10 CFR 430.32(c)(5) sets 14.3 SEER2 and 7.5 HSPF2 as the minimum for split-system heat pumps. Unlike air conditioners, where the same rule imposes a higher floor in the Southeast and Southwest, the heat pump minimum is a single national number — so on this page your ZIP code changes the labour and nothing else. The number that actually decides whether a heat pump works for you is not on the badge at all: it is the capacity at your design temperature. Ask for the low-temperature capacity table. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- What the backup is for, in numbers
- A 3.5-ton heat pump is nominally 42,000 BTU/h. This house screens at about 70,000 BTU/h of heating load in a mixed climate, so the unit covers around 60% of it at nominal — and nominal is measured at 47 °F, so at the coldest hours it is covering less than that. In a cold climate the same arithmetic gives 36%. That gap is the backup’s entire reason to exist, and it is why the cold-climate tier costs what it costs: it is the option that narrows the gap instead of paying to fill it every January. Both load and capacity here are screening estimates, published with their bands in the dataset.
- Dual fuel, described by the people who wrote the rules
- ENERGY STAR, Air-Source Heat Pumps describes adding a heat pump alongside an existing furnace and says it “this creates a dual-fuel system for a modest extra cost over an AC system”. Our model agrees with the shape of that: $7,570 dual fuel against $5,851 for a plain air conditioner changeout on the same house. The part that needs care is not the hardware but the setting: the control decides at what outdoor temperature the furnace takes over, and that crossover should be set from your own gas and electricity rates rather than left on a default. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- The refrigerant work, which is not optional
- EPA, Stationary Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (Section 608) establishes the national recycling and emission reduction programme, and EPA states that it prohibits intentionally venting these refrigerants and their substitutes while maintaining, servicing, repairing or disposing of air conditioning equipment. On a heat pump there is a second reason to care about who does the refrigerant work: the charge has to be correct in both directions of flow, and a system charged to look right in cooling can be wrong in heating. That is what the three hours of commissioning are for. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- Labour rates by area
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for heating and air conditioning mechanics and installers and for electricians, adjusted to your metropolitan area. Retrieved 2026-08-20. Benefit load from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. Heating and air conditioning mechanics are published for 524 of the 530 areas in our index — the best coverage of any specialist trade on this site, which is worth saying because on most of our pages the caveat runs the other way. The wage is official and regional; the hours are our estimate.
- Material prices
- Modelled estimates, not sourced prices. No public, machine-readable source of US residential material prices exists, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Each line carries its own uncertainty band. How we estimate them.
Contractor overhead and profit applied at 33–43% over direct cost. Data last reviewed 2026-08-23.
What this figure does not include
- Electrical panel or service upgrade
- The all-electric figure assumes the panel has room and capacity for the backup feeder. When it does not, that is a separate job and frequently a large one — it is the single most common reason a heat pump quote lands far above expectation.
- Ductwork repair or resizing
- A heat pump moves noticeably more air than a furnace to deliver the same heat, so ducts that were adequate before can become the limiting factor. Checking them is part of a proper design; replacing them is a separate job.
- Federal, state or utility incentives
- Nothing on this page is netted off against any incentive. The federal 25C credit closed to property placed in service after 31 December 2025; state and utility programmes vary and change, and we do not track them.
- A Manual J load calculation
- The tonnage here is a screening estimate from square feet and climate. A heat pump is the case where a real load calculation earns its money, because the sizing has to satisfy heating as well as cooling.
- Ductless mini split systems
- A different product for a different problem — no ducts, one head per room. Priced on our mini split page.
- Geothermal or ground-source heat pumps
- Those need a loop field in the ground, which is drilling or excavation and is the majority of the cost. Nothing on this page applies to them.
Questions people actually ask
How much does a heat pump cost for a 2000 sq ft house?
About $7,570 in Atlanta keeping your existing gas furnace as backup, and $9,151 going all-electric with a new air handler — a 3.5-ton system either way, ranging $6,743 to $11,558. The equipment tier moves it further than the house size does: $8,223 at the federal minimum rating and $10,411 for a cold-climate inverter unit. None of these figures is netted against any tax credit, because as of 2026 there is no federal one to net.
How much is a heat pump for 1500 sq ft?
About $6,333 on a dual-fuel installation and $7,913 all-electric, against $7,570 and $9,151 for the same job on 2,000 square feet. Notice how little the difference is: a quarter less house is nowhere near a quarter less money. The reason is that the crew, the day, the permit, the electrical work, the recovery and the commissioning are almost identical whatever size the equipment is. Only the outdoor unit and the air handler scale, and they are a minority of the bill.
Is there a federal tax credit for installing a heat pump?
Not for work done now. The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit gave up to $2,000 on a qualifying heat pump, and the IRS states that the credit is allowed for qualifying property "placed in service on or after Jan. 1, 2023, and before December 31, 2025". A system commissioned in 2026 falls outside that window. This matters when reading other cost pages: most were written while the credit existed, still quote it, and therefore show a net figure that no longer applies. We are not tax advisers and this is not tax advice — check the IRS page linked below, and check separately for state and utility programmes, which are a different thing and still exist in many places.
What is the downside to a heat pump?
It makes less heat as it gets colder, which is precisely when you want more. This model sizes the unit on the cooling load, as the trade does, because a machine big enough for the coldest night would be badly oversized for summer. On a 2,000 square foot house in a cold climate that leaves a 3-ton unit rated 36,000 BTU/h against a screened heating load near 100,000 BTU/h — around 36% covered at nominal, and nominal is measured at 47 °F, so real output at design temperature is lower still. The rest comes from backup: resistance elements that cost roughly three times as much per unit of heat, or a gas furnace kept for the purpose. The second downside follows from the first: those elements need serious electrical capacity, and a panel upgrade is the commonest reason a quote comes back far above expectation.
Taken from Google’s “people also ask” results for this search on 23 August 2026, not invented.
Other cost calculators
The first of these are the jobs closest to this one — the ones that turn up in the same quote, or instead of it.
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- The full heat pump installation cost dataset
Every unit price, every quantity rule and the reasoning behind each estimate, as a plain table.
- How we calculate
The formula, the sources, and an honest account of which parts of the model are weak.