Heat Pump Cost

Submitted by raidflex t3_zq5r4c in Connecticut

I recently moved into a new house and I just had a quote for a heat pump installation which including only replacing the two outdoor condensers and running new electrical lines for the condensers to provide higher amperage. The quote came to $30K and since the air handlers do not need to replaced I would NOT be able to receive energy rebates. According to the company the entire system would need to replaced for the rebates, which seems ridiculous and wasteful. The current Central AC system was installed in 2018, so the handlers are compatible and not that old!

This seems extremely high for ONLY replacing the outdoor units. No new piping, ducting changes or zoning changes.

I currently have Hydro Air with oil heat, boiler is about 6 years old.

The two units they quoted at $30K were:

Ecoer : Variable Speed EODA18H-2436 2-3 Ton

Ecoer : Variable Speed EODA18H-4860 4-5 Ton

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omegaclick t1_j0wh0mc wrote

Get more quotes...for something that expensive it really does pay to do the footwork and get a reasonable quote...

The air handlers are really the cheapest part of the system and rather easy to swap out, might be worth it to replace them as well. You do have to pair the outdoor units with the indoor.. some are compatible but most are a matched set...designed and engineered to work together...

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raidflex OP t1_j0wj7g4 wrote

Yes, I do plan to get other quotes. I thought this was still very high. There's no reason to replace the airhandlers when they work perfectly fine and only 6 years old. In fact, the person that came out said they still use the same model air handlers in the systems that they install.

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silasmoeckel t1_j0x8lgl wrote

The rebates are extremely wasteful, you only get them with a professional install not just a permit/inspection and the pro are marking up their price to eat the rebate tuning a 20k job to 30 because you can afford the 20 after rebate (whatever the percentages are).

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raidflex OP t1_j0xakjq wrote

Yeah or in my case I would not even qualify for the rebate unless I had new air handlers installed also, so I would need to cover all 30K of the install. So much for trying to "save" the environment.

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silasmoeckel t1_j0yr6tr wrote

I did the install ended up under 10k with multiple 40k quotes and took a couple weekends.

Only rebate thats realy useful is the heat pump water heater.

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1Enthusiast t1_j0xeckw wrote

HVAC in CT is a scam right now and they are robbing people for 1 days worth if labor

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yudkib t1_j0xrrvw wrote

Solar too, but there’s tons of demand so I get it. They could rob people blind and still have a line around the block. It’s also worth mentioning that installers right now hit the books on gross payroll at something like $65-75 an hour. That’s still a lot less than the $250-300/hr or so that places seem to be charging for a tech and helper, but techs are incredibly short supply.

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1Enthusiast t1_j0yril2 wrote

Thats great I like that vocational people can make a buck. As a middle class person I don’t think they are being very gracious about it when they try to assign 3 vans to your house for a whole day just to install an air handler. Its a but ridiculous and is $75/hr $150k annually? 😂

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yudkib t1_j0ywdr3 wrote

That’s gross payroll, which includes FICA, PFL, UI, STD and other benefits, and so forth. I’ve seen 80-100k

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Same_Pay_8419 t1_j0wkvtw wrote

it is expensive - shop around and make sure they maintain capacity at 5F if trying to get off oil entirely. Japanese manufacturers tend to be better in that respect.

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raidflex OP t1_j0wrgjf wrote

Yeah, I definitely am going to shop around. Not in a rush as the house was built in 1999 and is very well sealed. I already had the energy audit, and all they basically did was add some weather stripping to the doors and spray foam around the sill plate in the basement. The house is 5200 sqft, including a finished basement. So, I am looking for ways to cut energy use. I figured solar and heat pump was a good choice. Unfortunately, the roof is original, so that will need to be done before adding solar. The house also has 5 zones, so I can control the HVAC well.

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johnsonutah t1_j0wvb4f wrote

I would recommend getting a solar audit / quote done before buying heat pumps if you are looking for maximal savings. It pays to at least know what capacity your roof setup allows for - and it would suck if you put the heat pumps in and then the solar generated is no where near sufficient

Ecoer is an increasingly popular brand, who quoted you? Mitsubishi i another very good brand

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Same_Pay_8419 t1_j0x3hix wrote

If starting with oil heat, would try to size the solar for the heat pumps rather than the other way around. Unless it comes back to <$3/gallon, it makes sense to heat with heat pumps regardless of the solar capacity.

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johnsonutah t1_j0yw6uy wrote

Interesting point! I’m curious how high electricity costs can go before it’s prohibitive / neutral to use heat pumps? I suppose the cost of electricity is likely to rise as oil prices go up (as we’ve seen) so there’s a correlation between the two meaning heat pumps are usually advantageous

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raidflex OP t1_j0x47e5 wrote

I did get a quote for a 20Kw system, so there are no issues there. The house gets a lot of sun and has a large roof for panels. Although this is large, it was based on the previous owners energy use, which was 2000kwH a month. We use about half that so far, so we don't need such a large system. I'm not sure why they were using so much energy.

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CtForrestEye t1_j104sau wrote

Energy usage varies considerably on the number of people in the house due to laundry, hot water, cooking

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raidflex OP t1_j109iz4 wrote

There is actually more people in the house then with the previous owners. Still more then 2x-3x the usage seems awfully excessive. There was months in the middle of winter that was as high as the summer months with central AC running. The water heater uses oil, so that would not account for much electricity.

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[deleted] t1_j0wemcf wrote

I got quoted 20k for heat pumps.

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thateyeguy t1_j0x6e9v wrote

Like everyone is saying, shop around. When I was looking in the summer/fall of 2021, I got three quotes for a new 4 room system. I got three quotes ranging from 15K to 28K.

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raidflex OP t1_j0x77ho wrote

I know, I know, I was just trying to get an idea of others as well.

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jstahr63 t1_j0xo9uc wrote

I had a 28k est. pre-pandemic. Decided to replace the flood damaged oil burner instead at <9k. Might regret that this year.

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ChummusJunky t1_j10n8fw wrote

Literally just had Bosch bova 2.0 heat pump and 3 ton air handler (I think it was 3 ton) installed for about 12k. This also included removing my oil tank and furnace as well as insulting my air ducts.

I was also able to get a .99% loan from energizeCt so I only had to pay $2k down and I pay around $130 a month.

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raidflex OP t1_j0wg65l wrote

Did that include replacing the air handlers or just the outdoor units? My qoute was only for the outdoor units.

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woltsoc t1_j0wj6cz wrote

I just did 32 for a 3 ton and 2 ton Trane ducted, which included the air handler. Yours seems high but a 4-5 ton unit would explain it.

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ForeverFinancial5602 t1_j0ynn9b wrote

Sounds like double what I paid. Get more quotes. Where in the state are you?

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1234nameuser t1_j0yth4p wrote

Shop around, but I'd warn be prepared to delay it until mid-2023 / 2024.

Everything is overpriced right now no matter how many quotes you get.

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yudkib t1_j0xr4gr wrote

At first blush I thought it was outrageous, but a high quality 5 ton heat pump is going to be a lot of money. Middle of the road were $6k like a decade ago, $10k for something nice just for the big pump isn’t impossible. That’s a lot less than $30k even after overhead/profit though.

I would ask for the breakdown for labor/materials for each pump and a lump sum cost for the electric.

I would also check your condensers and see how many BTU they are. It’s not uncommon to step up a size from condenser to heat pump to account for efficiency losses in cold weather (condensers are always very efficient).

I would bid the work. Don’t say anything about the first guy to the next guy, including what equipment he suggested.

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raidflex OP t1_j0yyt43 wrote

There was a $1500 difference between the installation of each unit. I thought the 5-6 ton would have been significantly more. They did not break out the electrical cost, which I don't really need since my brother in law is an electrician. But I would not expect the electrical to be more than 2k.

I am in no rush. My current system works well, and the house is well insulated and sealed. I always try to get at least 3 bids. I hate looking around for a new company, though. I am either used to doing it myself, or I already have a known contact that I can trust.

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yudkib t1_j0z1b55 wrote

I’m in a similar situation to you. Oil boiler with central air, and fan coil units that can be converted and run from heat pumps. I’d love to do solar and switch. $30k does not make sense from a repayment period perspective. Even $20k. I haven’t quoted it out (planning to do solar first), but sounds like there’s no rush for me either. I do my best to cut down on emissions for environmental reasons, but part of that means being selective about spending my money where it’s going to produce the most benefit. This does not sound like that place.

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