HVAC Replacement Cost Calculator
Replacing a whole heating and cooling system costs about $9,551 in Atlanta for a furnace and air conditioner at the legal minimum, and $9,635 for an all-electric heat pump. Doing both halves in one visit rather than two years apart saves $422, about 4% — real, and a good deal smaller than most people assume, which is the useful part of knowing it. Treat it as a tiebreaker between two machines of similar age, not as a reason to replace one that still has years left in it.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost to replace the whole system
$9,340
typical · range $6,519 to $12,160 · 3.5 tons · 100,000 BTU/h furnace · 39 trade hours
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 75% 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 configuration most American houses already have and the cheapest to replace like for like, because the flue, the gas line and the ducts all stay where they are. Two machines, each doing one job for half the year.
Single-stage, at the federal floor. For air conditioners that floor is not the same everywhere: 13.4 SEER2 in the North and 14.3 in the Southeast and Southwest, and in those states an outdoor unit below it may not be installed at all. This is the honest baseline against which every upsell should be measured.
What almost every quote assumes without saying so. Fine if the ducts are sound and correctly sized. Worth knowing that they usually are not measured before the equipment is chosen, and that a new system is only as good as what carries its air.
1 / 4
The figure above is already calculated. Each step just makes it more yours, and you can stop at any of them.
Both halves now, or one now and one later?
The two sides come from this site’s own furnace and air conditioner models, on the same wage data and the same equipment grade. Only the way the work is organised differs.
| How it is done | Trade hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Furnace on its own | — | $4,177 |
| Air conditioner on its own | — | $5,603 |
| Two visits, two years apart | 47.7 | $9,781 |
| Everything in one visit | 39 | $9,340 |
Doing it all at once saves $441 — about 5%. That is real, and it is smaller than people expect, which is the useful part. It comes from 8.700000000000003 fewer trade hours, one permit instead of two, one commissioning visit and one trip to the tip. ⚠️ So the bundle is not the argument. If your furnace has eight good years left, replacing it early to save 5% on the visit means paying eight years early for something you already owned. Decide on the age and condition of each machine; treat this saving as a tiebreaker, not a reason.
Three ways to heat and cool the same house
| Configuration | Trade hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Gas furnace and air conditioner | 39 | $9,340 |
| Heat pump with the gas furnace kept as backup | 39 | $10,147 |
| All-electric heat pump with an air handler | 45.5 | $9,739 |
A whole-system replacement is the one moment when switching from gas to a heat pump costs almost nothing extra to consider, because everything is coming out anyway. The all-electric row also has no flue, no gas connection and no carbon monoxide in it — and it needs the electrical capacity for its backup heat, which is the question to settle first.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gas furnace, 80% AFUEfurnace input BTU ÷ 1,000, at standard efficiency | 1001,000 BTU/h input | $1,100–$2,200 | estimated±33% |
| Matched indoor coil1 when the coil sits on a furnace | 1each | $560–$1,150 | estimated±35% |
| Outdoor air conditioner, 13.4 SEER2 (North minimum)system tons, minimum efficiency, in a state the rule does not name | 3.5ton | $1,820–$3,325 | estimated±29% |
| Thermostat1 per system | 1each | $35–$240 | estimated±75% |
| Removal, setting and connection, whole system26 trade hours for the whole system in one visit | 26hour | $1,483–$1,593 | sourced |
| Plenums, transitions and sheet metal1 per system | 1each | $180–$420 | estimated±40% |
| Sheet metal fabrication and fitting4 hours per system | 4hour | $228–$245 | sourced |
| Metal flue connector to the existing chimney1 when a standard-efficiency furnace reuses the chimney | 1each | $55–$165 | estimated±50% |
| Gas connection, shutoff and sediment trap1 on any system with a furnace | 1each | $45–$110 | estimated±42% |
| Gas fitting and leak test1.5 hours on any system with a furnace | 1.5hour | $89–$96 | sourced |
| Condensate drain, neutraliser and pan1 per system | 1each | $45–$160 | estimated±56% |
| Flushing and pressure-testing the existing line set1 when the existing line set is reused | 1each | $30–$85 | estimated±48% |
| Filter drier and service valves1 per system | 1each | $25–$90 | estimated±57% |
| Evacuation and refrigerant chargesystem tons | 3.5ton | $123–$368 | estimated±50% |
| Refrigerant recovery from the old system2 hours on every changeout | 2hour | $114–$123 | sourced |
| Pad or raised stand for the outdoor unit1 per system | 1each | $35–$160 | estimated±64% |
| Disconnect, whip, breakers and backup feeder1 per system | 1each | $55–$680 | estimated±85% |
| Electrical work2 hours on a gas system, 6 on an all-electric one | 2hour | $118–$127 | sourced |
| Start-up and commissioning of the whole system3.5 hours per system | 3.5hour | $200–$214 | sourced |
| Old equipment removal and disposal1 when the old equipment is taken away | 1each | $70–$190 | estimated±46% |
| Mechanical and electrical permit1 when the job is permitted | 1each | $110–$420 | estimated±58% |
| Total | $6,519–$12,160 | ±30% |
Where these numbers come from
- Where the saving comes from, and where it does not
- Our furnace model puts a standard 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, over 47.7 trade hours. Done together it is $9,551 over 39. All three figures share the same BLS wage, the same benefit load and the same equipment grade, which is the only reason the comparison means anything. The 8.700000000000003 hours saved are the strip-out done once, the sheet metal set out once and the refrigerant circuit opened once; the rest is one permit, one commissioning visit and one trip to the tip. ⚠️ What it is not is a reason to replace a healthy machine early. Paying 4% less on a job you did not need yet is not a saving.
- Why 2026 equipment costs more than 2023 equipment
- 40 CFR 84.54(a)(1) provides that effective January 1, 2025, no person may manufacture or import self-contained residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pump products using a refrigerant with a global warming potential of 700 or greater. R-410A is far above that line, so the sector moved to new refrigerants and equipment prices moved with it. The practical consequence for a whole-system job is the one people find out late: a new outdoor unit and an old indoor coil are not a system. Replacing half is no longer the normal option it once was, which is part of why this page exists. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- The two efficiency floors, which are not the same rule
- 10 CFR 430.32 sets both. For air conditioners it is 13.4 SEER2 nationally and 14.3 in the Southeast and Southwest, with the states listed inside the regulation, and an outdoor unit below the applicable figure may not be installed in those states at all. For furnaces it is 80% AFUE today and 95% for units manufactured on and after December 18, 2028. Those two rules pull in different directions on a whole-system job: the air conditioner floor depends on your address, the furnace floor depends on the calendar. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- The cheapest thing you can buy on this day
- Sealing the accessible duct joints while the system is open comes to $473 on top of the job here — $10,025 against $9,551. It is almost entirely labour, the crew is already there and the system is already apart, and it is the single change most likely to make new equipment behave the way its label says. It is also absent from most quotes, because nobody asks for it. A new system is only as good as what carries its air, and ducts are rarely measured before the equipment is chosen.
- The line that is never optional
- EPA, Stationary Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (Section 608) establishes the national recycling and emission reduction programme, and EPA states that it prohibits individuals from intentionally venting these refrigerants and their substitutes while maintaining, servicing, repairing or disposing of air conditioning equipment. That is the two hours of recovery in the breakdown, before anything is cut. It is also the clearest signal you will get about who you have hired. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- One machine instead of two
- A whole-system replacement is the one moment when switching from gas to a heat pump costs almost nothing extra to consider, because everything is coming out anyway. On this house the all-electric option is $9,635 against $9,551 for the furnace-and-air-conditioner pair. ENERGY STAR, Air-Source Heat Pumps describes the dual-fuel middle path as costing modestly more than an air conditioner alone. ⚠️ The all-electric route needs the electrical capacity for its backup heat, which is a separate job when the panel has none — and that is the commonest reason such a quote lands far above expectation. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- Labour rates by area
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for heating and air conditioning mechanics and installers, electricians and pipefitters, 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. The wage is official and regional; the trade hours are our estimate, and on this page they carry the whole argument, so it is worth saying that plainly rather than once in a footnote.
- 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
- Replacing or resizing the ductwork
- Sealing accessible joints is offered here because it is cheap while the system is open. Replacing ducts is a different job of a different size, and it is priced on our ductwork page.
- Electrical panel or service upgrade
- Every figure assumes the panel has room and capacity for what the new system needs. When it does not, that is a separate job — priced on our electrical panel page.
- A Manual J load calculation
- The sizing here is a screening estimate from floor area and climate, not a room-by-room load calculation. A real one costs money and frequently comes back smaller than any rule of thumb.
- Zoning, dampers or a second system
- Above about five tons a house is normally split into two systems or zoned. Neither is modelled here.
- Oil-fired equipment and boilers
- Oil furnaces have a tank, a filter and a nozzle; boilers heat water rather than air and have no ducts at all. Boilers are priced on our boiler page.
- Asbestos on old duct joints or flue cement
- Houses from before the eighties can have it. It is tested rather than disturbed, and abatement is licensed work with its own pricing.
Questions people actually ask
How much is a new HVAC system for a 2000 square foot house?
About $9,551 in Atlanta for a gas furnace and air conditioner at the minimum legal efficiency, replaced together — a 3.5-ton system with a 100,000 BTU/h furnace, ranging $6,682 to $12,421. Moving up a grade takes it to $11,579 and the top tier to $12,891. An all-electric heat pump instead of the pair is $9,635. What moves the figure most is not the house size but which of those configurations you choose and what has to be done to the flue, the gas line and the electrical supply around it.
What is the average lifespan of a HVAC?
We do not publish a lifespan figure, because we have no measured source for one and the honest ranges people quote — fifteen to twenty-five years for a furnace, twelve to twenty for an air conditioner — are wide enough to be unhelpful on any individual machine. What is more useful is the decision rule. A system is worth replacing when the next repair is a compressor or a heat exchanger rather than a capacitor, when parts are getting hard to find, or when both halves are old enough that you will be doing this again in three years. That last one is what this page is really about: doing both halves at once saves $422 here, about 4%.
Are HVAC prices going up in 2026?
Equipment prices did move upward across 2025, and the reason is dated and documented rather than speculative: since January 1, 2025, 40 CFR 84.54 has barred manufacture and import of self-contained residential air conditioning and heat pump products using refrigerants with a global warming potential of 700 or greater. R-410A, which nearly every system installed this century uses, is far above that, so the industry changed refrigerant and equipment built for the replacements costs more. A second dated change is ahead: from December 18, 2028 the minimum for an indoor gas furnace becomes 95% AFUE, which means condensing, which means different venting. Neither is a forecast. Both are in the regulations.
What is the $5000 rule for HVAC?
A trade rule of thumb with no official standing: multiply the age of the equipment in years by the repair you have been quoted, and replace rather than repair if the answer is over 5,000. A fifteen-year-old system with a $400 repair gives 6,000, so it says replace. We publish it because people ask, with one caveat that matters more than the rule: it takes no account of what replacement actually costs where you live, which on this page is $9,551 in Atlanta. It also says nothing about the other half of your system, and that is the question this page exists to answer.
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.
- HVAC repair cost
Tests the $5,000 rule against our own replacement model and shows where the two disagree, plus what R-22 adds to anything that opens the refrigerant circuit.
- Furnace replacement cost
Separates what a condensing furnace costs from what it forces you to build around it, including the chimney liner your water heater suddenly needs.
- Ductwork replacement cost
Sealing, partial and full replacement side by side, because the cheapest of the three fixes most of what the dearest would and is the one least likely to be offered.
- Mini split installation cost
Sizes each room from the ENERGY STAR capacity table and shows what every additional zone really costs, which is rarely what people expect.
- The full hvac replacement 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.