Buying·8 min read
How to read a heat pump quote line by line
The four line items that should be on every proposal, and the three that mean you should get another bid.
The four line items that should be on every proposal, and the three that mean you should get another bid.
A heat pump quote is a legal-sized page of acronyms and a number at the bottom, and most homeowners sign it without reading the middle. Here's what should actually be on it, and what its absence tells you.
First, a Manual J load calculation, in writing, specific to your house. Not a rule of thumb based on square footage, an actual room-by-room calculation. If a contractor sized your system by eyeballing the old equipment's tonnage, that's how oversizing happens, and oversizing is the single most common cause of a heat pump that runs poorly.
Second, the exact model numbers for both the outdoor condenser and the indoor air handler or coil, matched as a rated pair (AHRI-certified). SEER2 and HSPF2 ratings on the label are earned by that specific combination. A quote that lists a condenser model but leaves the indoor unit as “compatible coil” is leaving the actual efficiency you'll get undefined.
Third, what happens to the existing ductwork. Reusing ducts sized for a furnace on a heat pump, which typically moves more air at a lower temperature, without at least a static pressure check is a common way to inherit a duct problem the new equipment can't fix. A good quote says whether ducts were inspected, and what if anything needs to change.
Fourth, the refrigerant line set: whether it's being reused or replaced, and what refrigerant the new system uses. Newer systems increasingly use A2L refrigerants like R-454B, which have different line set and evacuation requirements than the outgoing R-410A. A contractor should say which refrigerant is going in and whether the existing line set is rated for it.
None of this means the cheapest quote is wrong or the most expensive is right. It means the paperwork should let you compare bids on the same terms: same load calculation, same rated pairing, same scope of duct work. Two contractors quoting the identical scope will often land within a few percent of each other; wildly different prices for supposedly the same job usually means the scope isn't actually the same.
