Heat pump quote checklist

You’ve got two envelopes on the table. One is $12,000 and one is $18,000, and they both say “heat pump.” You can’t tell which is the better job until you know what each bidder measured, because a model number and a dollar amount is a catalog page.

Heat pump vs furnace is the decision to buy one. Mark each envelope against the questions below. If a line is missing, the bid isn’t finished.

Did they measure this house?

Ask for a written heating and cooling load. The common name is Manual J, which is just a room-by-room calculation of how much heat this house loses and how much cooling it needs. Square-footage rules of thumb are how people buy a machine that is too big, short-cycles, and still leaves the back bedroom cold.

If the house is drafty, the next dollar often belongs in the attic, not in a bigger outdoor unit. Envelope work should be in the bid or clearly left out. The weatherization guide is that order.

A load on letterhead you can hold is the whole point. “We always put in 3-ton for this square footage” is not a load.

Existing ducts, or wall heads

If they reuse the existing ducts, did anyone check leaks, size, and whether the cold rooms even have return air? A “changeout” on leaky ducts feels like the old system with a new logo.

If they are putting indoor units on the walls (mini-splits), you need how many rooms, where the lines run, and where the condensate goes. A four-head plan is a different product than a one-condenser swap. You cannot compare those two prices until you know which house each one assumed.

If one bid assumed ducts and the other assumed four wall units, that is two jobs, not a $6,000 disagreement.

Capacity at your design temperature

The cooling sticker (SEER2) and heating sticker (HSPF2) are lab weather. You want capacity at the outdoor temperature your town actually hits. Cold-climate equipment exists, and a quote that only lists cooling efficiency has not answered the winter question.

Ask for a capacity table at your design temperature, in writing. If they cannot produce one, they have not picked a machine for your winter. Reading SEER2, HSPF2, and EER2 is the sticker decoder. This checklist is the bid decoder.

Is the breaker box in the price, or a surprise later?

You want space for a breaker, wire size, a disconnect, and a clear note on whether a panel upgrade is included, excluded, or “we’ll see when we open it.” “We’ll see” is how a $14,000 job becomes $19,000 in week two, so put a number or a hard exclusion on it now.

The 200-amp upgrade page is that fork when the exclusion is real.

Permits, pad, lines, startup, refrigerant

Permits, the pad, hiding the lines, thermostat, hauling the old stuff, startup, and refrigerant should be named. If labor warranty is separate from parts, they should say so. Factory labor coverage often requires their factory-trained installer, and that belongs in the bid, not in the driveway.

If a line is missing, assume you will pay it later. That is not cynicism. That is how change orders work.

Placed in service, not last year’s 25C

Who submits the utility rebate, and what “placed in service” date they will document. Don’t bake a dead federal credit into 2026 math. The IRS 25C window ended for qualifying property placed in service after December 31, 2025.

IRS: Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit

How to check your rebates is the local version of this question. A bid that says “rebate included” with no program name is unfinished.

$11,900, $17,400, or $24,800

These numbers are labeled examples, not a quote for your house.

$11,900

“3-ton 18 SEER2 heat pump, changeout, existing ducts.” No load, no winter capacity, electrical “as needed,” rebate “we’ll help.” This bid is unfinished. The change order will be the panel, the duct repair, and the extra wall unit for the addition nobody measured.

$17,400

Load attached (heating 34 kBTU at 10°F, cooling 28 kBTU). Duct leakage test quoted as an add. Capacity table at 10°F. Panel upgrade excluded at $0 with a sentence that the existing 200-amp box has two spaces and the load calc fits. Labor warranty 2 years if they install; parts 10. You can argue with this bid because the assumptions are written down.

$24,800

Four wall units, no ducts. It looks like the $17,400 bid lost until you notice that one assumed ducts that dump 30% into the attic. If the ducts are that bad, the wall-unit number might be the honest number, or you weatherize and stay with two heads.

You cannot compare the cheap bid to the middle one until the cheap bid has a load. You cannot compare the middle bid to the wall-unit bid until you know what the ducts actually do. I’d rather pay for the load sheet than guess.

Keep shopping if they say this

“We always put in 3-ton for this square footage.” A cooling sticker with no heating capacity at design temperature. Mitsubishi vs Carrier as a personality test instead of a spec sheet. “Utility rebate included” with no program name. A same-day price if you sign before they see the attic.

After you pick someone

Ask for the equipment list with the official model numbers (AHRI, the rating that lets you compare machines), who pulls the permit, and who pays if the heating calculation was wrong and you need another indoor unit. If there is backup heat, get the outdoor cutoff temperature in writing.

Then take a week. A heat pump hangs around for 15 years, and the checklist is so that week is informed. If the bid bundles a home warranty, read what the contract excludes before you treat that brochure as coverage.