Cost Home Book is written and edited by the Cost Home Book editorial team. The team builds the site's cost models from publicly available US wage statistics, supplier price lists and permit data, and updates each guide as those sources change. It has no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer or lead-generation service. Figures on this site are estimates for reading a quote, not quotes.
How the figures are built
Every cost band starts as a national figure with a date on it. Where a guide is priced from published data, the labor leg follows the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the trade that does the work, and the materials leg follows a Producer Price Index series for what it is made of. Once a guide's sources section is published, both are named and linked at its foot, with the release they were read from.
The one number no dataset supplies is how much of a job is labor and how much is materials. That split is a judgement, it is stated on the page, and it is the difference between a roof price that moves with roofers' wages and one that moves with asphalt. How we calculate costs sets out the arithmetic, and the editorial policy is explicit about which figures are derived and which are estimates.
Independence
We have no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer, marketplace or lead-generation service. The site is funded by display advertising and nothing else — no referral fees, no commissions, no paid placements. No advertiser sees a figure before a reader does. How the site is funded.
Corrections and contact
If a figure here does not match what you were quoted, that is worth knowing and we would rather hear it. Send the page, the figure and what you were actually quoted to corrections@costhomebook.com, or see the corrections policy for what happens next. Anything else: hello@costhomebook.com.
Guides by the Cost Home Book editorial team
235 in total, page 16 of 24.
AC compressor replacement cost$1,500 to $4,000eachA compressor costs $1,500 to $3,500 out of warranty and $600 to $1,400 if the part is still covered. It is the most expensive component in the system, and past twelve years the money usually belongs in a replacement.
Evaporator coil replacement cost$900 to $2,800eachAn evaporator coil costs $900 to $2,800, or $600 to $1,300 if the part is under warranty. Coils built between about 2005 and 2015 fail from formicary corrosion more often than they should, and many fail inside the warranty.
Thermostat installation cost$150 to $600eachA thermostat costs $150 to $500 installed, or $250 to $600 for a smart one. Two things turn a simple swap into an expensive job: a missing common wire and a heat pump.
HVAC tune-up cost$85 to $250eachA tune-up costs $85 to $250 a visit. It is the cheapest thing you will spend on the system and the one most often sold as something it is not. A real service is an hour of measurement; a $59 special is twenty minutes and a sales conversation.
Air duct cleaning cost$400 to $1,000per projectDuct cleaning costs $400 to $1,000. It is one of the most aggressively marketed home services in the country and one of the least often necessary, so the useful part of this page is when to skip it.
Whole house humidifier cost$400 to $1,300eachA whole-house humidifier costs $400 to $1,300 installed. Buy a $12 hygrometer first: below 30% in midwinter is worth acting on, and above 50% is a condensation problem rather than a dryness one.
Boiler replacement cost$3,500 to $14,000per projectReplacing a gas boiler costs $3,500 to $14,000, typically around $7,500. A standard efficiency unit on an existing system sits at the bottom; a condensing boiler needing new venting and a chimney liner sits at the top.
Geothermal heat pump cost$18,000 to $45,000per projectA geothermal system costs $18,000 to $45,000 installed, or about $19,600 typical after the 30% federal credit. Between a third and a half of the bill is drilling or excavation rather than heating equipment.
Repair or replace your HVAC system$6,500 to $22,000per projectThe $5,000 rule says multiply the repair by the age of the system and replace above $5,000. It is memorable and it is wrong often enough to cost money. Here is the arithmetic that works, and the cases where it is not close.
How long does an HVAC system last$6,500 to $22,000per projectA gas furnace lasts 15 to 25 years and an air conditioner 15 to 20. Those ranges are wide on purpose: two identical systems on the same street routinely differ by a decade, and almost none of it is brand.