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Heat pump cost: installation and running
A ducted heat pump does the work of a furnace and an air conditioner, so its price is read against both.
Built by Radif Partners · How prices are built · Editorial policy
Furnace or other built-in heating in the United States, hired out
$5,720
Most jobs between $3,430 and $8,590 (middle half of reported prices)
| Furnace or other built-in heating | $3,430 to $8,590 · median $5,720 |
| Central air conditioning | $4,620 to $10,990 · median $7,700 |
| National median (homeowners’ reports) | $5,723 |
| Regional level (Census division) | +0.0% |
| State labor adjustment | +0.0% |
| Typical price in the United States | $5,720 |
Heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers: national mean $31.14 an hour. Range from homeowners who hired a professional (2021 to 2023, American Housing Survey 2023), in August 2026 dollars; permits, tear-off of unusual materials, structural repairs and local surcharges vary job to job. How this is calculated.
No federal survey prices heat pumps on their own, so the honest answer comes in two parts. Built-in heating systems, a category that includes furnaces, boilers and heat pumps used as the main heat, cost $5,720 at the median when a professional installed them, with half of jobs between $3,430 and $8,590, in the 1,591 jobs of the 2023 American Housing Survey brought to August 2026 dollars. Central air conditioning, the other half of what a ducted heat pump replaces, cost $7,700. A heat pump that takes over both roles therefore sits somewhere inside those two ranges, depending on whether the ducts, the air handler and the electrical panel can stay. Running it is the other part: at the national average of 18.19¢ per kWh, heating an average gas-heated home's load with a minimum-efficiency heat pump costs about $871 a year.
Why the survey ranges bracket the price
The American Housing Survey lists the job an owner had done, not the technology. A heat pump installed as the main heat counts as built-in heating equipment; a heat pump installed to replace an old air conditioner, with the furnace kept as backup, may be reported as central air conditioning. The calculator therefore shows both ranges for your state. When one system replaces a furnace and an AC at the same time, the two middle halves added together run from $8,050 to $19,580: an upper bound for a straightforward ducted swap, since one outdoor unit and one indoor unit do the work of two systems.
Ductless mini-splits follow another logic. Each indoor head is a separate unit with its own line set, so the price grows with the number of rooms served rather than with the size of the house.
Federal minimums and the end of the tax credit
A split heat pump sold for installation today must reach 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, under 10 CFR 430.32. HSPF2 is a seasonal ratio of Btu of heat per watt-hour; divided by 3,412 Btu per kWh (EIA), it gives a seasonal coefficient of performance of 2.20 at the minimum, meaning about 2.2 units of heat per unit of electricity over a standard heating season. Cold-climate models do better at low temperatures; every heat pump loses capacity as the outdoor air gets colder.
The 30% federal credit for heat pumps under section 25C applied to improvements made through December 31, 2025, the IRS says, so a 2026 installation does not qualify. Utility and state programs remain the place to look for help with the price, and their terms change during the year.
What it costs to run, against gas
The average gas-heated home used 44.9 million Btu of gas for space heating in the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (2020). Burned in an 80% furnace, that delivers about 35.9 million Btu of heat. Delivering the same heat with a minimum-rating heat pump takes 4,787 kWh, or $871 at the national electricity average, against $675 of gas at the national residential average for last winter. The mini calculator below lets you change the load, the rating and the price; the full comparison uses your state's own gas, propane, oil and electricity prices.
Heat pump: yearly heating electricity
Heating electricity per year
$871
| Seasonal COP | 2.20 |
| kWh per year | 4,787 |
| Per winter month (of 5) | $174 |
Default heat load: the average space-heating use of gas-heated homes (EIA RECS 2020) at 80% efficiency; price: U.S. average.
Labor and the installer you pick
HVAC mechanics and installers earned a national mean of $31.14 an hour in May 2025 (BLS), and the calculator moves the labor share to your state's wage. Sizing matters more than brand: ask for a load calculation rather than a match to the old furnace's size, and get the heat pump's capacity at 17°F in writing if you live where winters are cold.