Heating & Cooling costs
Furnace, heat pump and air conditioning costs, from a tune-up to a full system replacement.
Heating and cooling is the one trade where equipment is usually more than half the bill. A condenser, coil and furnace are manufactured goods with list prices, and the spread between a builder-grade single-stage unit and a modulating one with a variable-speed blower is wider than the spread in labor between any two contractors.
Size is decided by the house, not by the old unit. A proper Manual J load calculation weighs insulation, window area, orientation and infiltration; replacing four tons with four tons because that is what was there carries forward whatever mistake was made the first time. Oversized equipment short-cycles, dehumidifies badly and fails early, which is a cost that does not appear on the quote.
The rest is the ductwork and what the install has to work around. Undersized returns, a furnace in a crawl space, a line set that has to be replaced for a refrigerant change, an electrical panel with no room for a heat pump — each adds real hours. Federal tax credits and utility rebates move the net price on high-efficiency equipment more than negotiating does.
4-ton AC unit cost$5,600 to $12,000per projectA 4-ton air conditioner costs $5,600 to $12,000 installed for the condenser and matched coil, typically $8,200. Whether the furnace blower and ducts can move about 1,600 CFM decides whether that is the whole bill.
Multi-zone mini-split cost$4,000 to $14,500per projectA multi-zone mini-split costs $4,000 to $14,500 installed for two to five heads on one outdoor unit, typically $8,000. Head count, line-set runs and head style set the price, and several single-zone units or a ducted system can be the better buy.
High-efficiency furnace cost$6,000 to $12,000per projectA condensing gas furnace at 96% AFUE or better costs $6,000 to $12,000 installed, typically $8,500. The vent route, the condensate drain and the water heater left on the chimney decide where a quote lands.
Blower motor replacement cost$400 to $1,800eachA blower motor costs $400 to $1,100 for a standard PSC and $600 to $1,800 for a variable-speed ECM. A blower that will not start is the motor about a third of the time and a capacitor or board the rest.
HVAC cost by house size$6,500 to $20,000per projectA full changeout runs about $9,600 in a 1,100 square foot house and about $12,400 in a 2,800 square foot one. The house more than doubles; the bill goes up by less than a third, because most of what you pay for is the crew and the day.
HVAC replacement cost by state$6,500 to $22,000per projectThe same system costs $9,350 in Arkansas and $12,850 in Illinois. Equipment ships nationally and costs much the same everywhere; the two technicians who spend a day fitting it do not.
Furnace repair cost$150 to $3,500per projectMost furnace repairs cost $150 to $700. The failures that stop a furnace are usually cheap and predictable. The one that ends the conversation is a cracked heat exchanger, and that is a replacement.
Heat pump repair cost$180 to $4,000per projectMost heat pump repairs cost $180 to $900. A heat pump fails in every way an air conditioner does, plus two of its own: the reversing valve and the defrost control. Both often show up as a bill rather than a breakdown.
AC refrigerant recharge cost$250 to $2,000per projectA recharge costs $250 to $750 on R-410A and $600 to $2,000 on older R-22. But an air conditioner does not consume refrigerant. If yours is low, it is leaking, and refilling it is buying the same gas twice.
Emergency HVAC repair cost$250 to $1,500per projectAn after-hours call costs $250 to $1,500 against $150 to $700 for the same work on a Tuesday morning. The parts cost the same. The useful question is whether tonight is actually an emergency.