Why Is It So Hard to Find a Competent Heat Pump Installer? (2025)

Don’t get me wrong: The latest generation of heat pump tech is fantastic, it can work well everywhere, and I hope everybody buys one the next time they need a new heating or cooling unit. My colleague Thom Dunn, who has covered HVAC for Wirecutter since 2018, lays out the case.

The economics don’t add up for everyone yet, but for a lot of people, they actually do. Some buyers are also comfortable paying a modest premium for a heat pump’s superior comfort or the environmental benefits it offers in comparison with traditional HVAC.

The frustrating part is that even when a heat pump is the obvious choice for a specific home, or when somebody is willing to pay extra for the tech, it’s still too hard to find a pro who can install one correctly.

Bad heat pump installations are too common to write off as an occasional fluke.

Depending on which experts I’ve asked and how they define “problem,” something like 30% to 50% of heat pump installations are shoddy enough to cause issues with comfort, energy costs, or reliability. It’s anecdotal, but those figures are in line with what I’ve seen among my friends and acquaintances.

Journalists are finding plenty of similar stories. This American Life and our New York Times colleagues have recently published articles about people’s struggles to find a contractor who is willing to install a heat pump. Boston.com ran an article about a Massachusetts state senator who found that his heat pump was far less efficient and environmentally friendly than it should have been. The Seattle Times found homeowners with mixed reviews about their heat pumps’ heating abilities, despite the mild climate in that part of the country.

And according to a 2018 review of research from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, studies have found that as many as 90% of residential HVAC installations (including heat pumps) could be faulty, though that figure likely includes minor shortcomings that wouldn’t be obvious to homeowners.

So what’s the issue? Recent coverage has pointed to a lack of training, and that’s true. But many of the industry insiders I’ve learned from think it goes deeper than that, down to the way that business has been done for decades and the lack of incentives for installers to do the type of careful work that a heat pump requires.

Many HVAC companies are set up to run as high-volume businesses, with relatively low prices and quick turnaround times. That model makes some sense: Most people replace their old furnace or AC only once it’s completely dead, and they need a new one in a hurry. Most households also struggle to absorb the multi-thousand-dollar cost of a new HVAC system. So the contractor who shows up first, with a low-enough bid, typically wins the job.

Modern heat pumps—done correctly—have a hard time fitting into that high-volume business model. Many contractors still don’t know that heat pumps for cold climates even exist, while others avoid the technology altogether.

“They want the turn and burn,” says Jeremy Begley, a longtime industry pro and building performance educator based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Lots of contractors are used to cranking through like-for-like furnace and air conditioner replacements, “and they make a really good living doing it.”

This business model doesn’t budget for the extra time that a successful heat pump retrofit typically requires. Part of the problem is that contractors would need to convince customers that a high-performance heat pump would be worth the extra cost and time to install it correctly. “They haven’t figured out how to do that yet,” says David Holtzclaw, who runs a building science and energy consulting firm in Omaha, Nebraska.

In areas with big heat pump rebates and incentives (like most places in the Greater Boston area, where I live), it’s easier to find HVAC pros who are happy to work with modern heat pumps. That still doesn’t mean they’ll be great at installing them, because they often treat it like just another box-swapping job. Many aren’t even aware of the fundamental differences between a modern heat pump and a furnace or AC.

The problems often start before the installation begins. It’s common for HVAC contractors to divide the labor between system installers—the technicians who drill the holes, lift the boxes, and connect the pipes—and system designers. The designers are often called “comfort consultants,” and they figure out which heat pumps to install and where so that your home is comfortable. They’re also effectively salespeople. There’s nothing wrong with that setup, and some of the smartest heat pump designers I’ve met are comfort consultants.

But some of the most ignorant people I’ve met in the industry are comfort consultants, too. They’ve often received coaching in sales strategies but not in HVAC design, yet they’re making technical decisions about a $15,000 climate-control system. They also tend to get paid on commission, so they have an incentive to try to convince you to pay $25,000 for that same setup or to sign on for upgrades.

The saving grace in the past has been that it’s really hard to screw up traditional HVAC. With furnaces, boilers, and regular air conditioners, contractors can cover up all kinds of problems by simply installing extra-large equipment. That solution is suboptimal, but most homeowners wouldn’t notice a difference or even realize that there’s a better way.

You can throw in a modern cold-climate heat pump without a careful design, and sometimes it’ll work. But that’s asking for trouble, and it doesn’t make the most of a heat pump’s capabilities.

Modern heat pumps are “like a Swiss watch,” Begley says. “They require precision in every single aspect.” Without that attention to detail on the contractor’s part, they may not deliver the energy savings, comfort, or reliability that you expect.

Ed Smith, co-founder of Amply Energy and co-host of The Heat Pump Podcast, describes heat pumps as “an order of magnitude” more complicated than traditional HVAC and says that contractors ought to have a healthy fear and respect for the tech. A recent guest on the podcast described the leap from traditional HVAC to modern heat pumps as “terrifying.”

Another reason it’s hard to convince HVAC pros to work on heat pumps: A lot of them have bad memories of working on older-generation heat pumps, especially if they’re from colder parts of the country.

That’s how Jim Bergmann learned to loathe them early in his career as a field technician in Northeast Ohio.

Bergmann often met unhappy customers when he was called to address problems related to heat pumps. Customers weren’t comfortable in their homes, their utility bills were high, and it was a miserable experience for everyone. “I’m standing outside in the middle of winter getting cold air blown on me while I’m working on this thing, and it just overall sucked,” Bergmann recalls. “There was nothing good about heat pumps, to my brain.”

Modern heat pump equipment works much differently, and many models are purpose-built to work well in frigid climates. Technicians still need some convincing, though. And who can blame them? They’re partly responsible for their customers’ comfort and utility bills, and they could be on the hook for emergency repairs at all hours in any weather.

Bergmann started to soften his stance a few years ago when he brought an inverter-driven, high-performance heat pump into the testing lab at his company measureQuick, which develops an eponymous system that performs a health check of sorts on HVAC equipment. Later, a friend talked him into installing a modern heat pump in his home, and now he’s a fan.

To some extent, this is all just growing pains: There’s momentum behind the technology, and it makes too much sense for heat pumps not to become the default way to heat and cool homes. If you’re not in dire need of a new HVAC system, you might consider sitting things out for a few years while the industry sorts itself out.

But if you want to forge ahead and get one now, you should go for it.

We have some tips in our longer guide to heat pumps, and the electrification advocacy group Rewiring America has its own take. But I’ve seen too many contractors who try (or at least pretend) to live up to those suggestions and still botch the job.

I don’t have all the answers. But based on what I’ve learned from true HVAC experts and building scientists, as well as some successful heat pump installations, here’s how I would find a contractor I could trust to do the job the right way.

Shrink the contractor pool

It’ll take too long to find a qualified heat pump pro if you’re just picking HVAC companies at random and trying to vet them through an in-home consultation. To narrow the focus, look for the following qualifications and qualities.

Industry certifications: Training groups such as the Building Performance Institute, the National Comfort Institute, and the Air Conditioning Contractors of America have find-a-contractor tools filled with pros who have completed certification programs. Some of the most knowledgeable people I’ve spoken to around the industry are on those lists, and it’s a good place to start.

That said, I’ve had some less-than-stellar dealings with some of the contractors on some of those lists, so vetting is still required (more tips on this below).

Electrification and efficiency companies: From what I’ve seen personally, companies that position themselves as electrification or energy-efficiency experts are more likely to be educated and enthusiastic about high-performance heat pumps and more likely to think holistically about your home, comfort, and energy savings, not just the box they’re installing.

Again, there are no guarantees here—I got ghosted by one such firm after they turned my attic into a mold farm—but it’s a start.

Brands’ preferred contractor lists: If you have an idea of what brand of heat pump you want, that brand’s website might have a find-a-contractor tool for pros who have taken extra training on that equipment. The contractor won’t necessarily pay attention to the other HVAC and building-science fundamentals, but they should at least understand the specific equipment reasonably well.

Then there are loads of other lists, marketplaces, and referral services put together by advocates and experts, businesses of various stripes, and so on. I really don’t know if consulting them has a higher success rate than just picking somebody off of Google or through word of mouth.

If these shortcuts don’t turn up as many qualified specialists as you hoped, keep in mind that you don’t have to write off “regular” HVAC contractors; I’ve come across plenty of smaller shops that do good work on heat pumps. You’d never know it from their company name or marketing materials, but their customer reviews might reveal some hidden expertise.

Demand a load calculation—and make sure it’s a good one

When you call a contractor to schedule an appointment, start by asking whether they do a Manual J. This is an industry-standard calculation to estimate how much heating and cooling your home needs to hold a target temperature, and it’s the first and most important step toward picking the right heat pump for your house. There are other decent ways to get a load calculation, but a contractor should do a Manual J because that’s their professional standard, and it’s often required by building codes or the terms of heat pump rebate programs.

I once spoke to one major heat pump installer in the Boston area who told me dismissively that they didn’t need to do a Manual J. Later, a friend hired this contractor, was left with a cold house through most of the winter, and saw their utility costs spike anyway. It turned out that the heat pump was way too big for their house, and the system had a handful of other serious design flaws. (The contractor’s solution was to then sell them a new thermostat, which still didn’t fix the problem.)

Not every Manual J calculation is a good one, either. At my old heat pump job, I saw projects in which a homeowner would get quotes from three different contractors who “did a Manual J,” yet they each proposed different heat pump sizes. Eric Fitz, the other co-founder of Amply Energy, said that he had a similar experience when he got quotes for his house.

I’ve seen a better way: A couple of new apps—Amply and Conduit Tech—use the lidar sensor in a phone or tablet to scan the rooms in your home, generate a Manual J load calculation, and automatically build a report including a room-by-room breakdown with visuals.

The comfort consultant doesn’t need technical HVAC training to use the app, and it’s much faster than manually filling out a Manual J worksheet. Begley described this method as “extremely accurate,” and other experts have spoken favorably about the tech.

Plenty of contractors can do a good load calculation by hand, but if I saw a contractor using one of these apps, I’d feel pretty confident that it would be a well-designed system.

App or otherwise, always ask to see the actual Manual J report. It should be more than just two numbers, and it should account for details such as local temperatures, your home’s insulation and air tightness, the windows, and more. If they can’t show you the report, they may not have done it.

I’ve spoken to some high-quality contractors who are a little cagey about sharing the Manual J report because they worry that you’ll just take their prep work and hand it off to a lower bidder. I get it, but this is a big investment, and I would like to see the documentation. You deserve to see it, too.

Find out what other measurements they take and the tools they use

A load calculation is the most important measurement, but there are a few other factors that help increase the odds of a super-efficient and comfortable installation. Ideally, the contractor will look at the following:

Ducts: Your home’s existing ductwork might not be well suited for a whole-house heat pump. The best contractors spot any problems and offer solutions, either duct modifications or a backup heater that takes over when it’s too cold and the heat pump can’t push enough warm air through tight ductwork. HVAC pros rarely do full duct-leakage tests, but you should ask about a static pressure test, which is like taking the blood pressure of a duct system, or Manual D measurements, which show how much air your ductwork can move without increasing the noise or pressure.

Air leakage: This is rare, but if your contractor does a blower door test as part of the system design, there’s an excellent chance that they know what they’re doing. This test works by running a huge fan in an exterior doorway to measure how leaky your home is, something that can have a major impact on your heating and cooling needs.

Installation: What kind of tools do they use to connect the refrigerant lines? Most high-performance heat pumps have flared connections, which require calibrated torque wrenches. How do they pressure-test those lines? Do they vacuum the lines down to 500 microns, measured by a digital gauge? The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has a checklist of best practices you can ask your contractor about.

Commissioning: The final step in any HVAC installation should be to adjust the system’s settings to suit the house. Most contractors skip this step because it’s tedious, but new tools can make the process simpler.

Bergmann’s measureQuick is the most popular commissioning tool: It’s a collection of a dozen or so Bluetooth probes, placed at various points around an HVAC system. Those probes all feed data into a smartphone app, and the app then spits out a report card about how well a new system is functioning. You can ask about the software by name or request an ACCA QI (quality installation) certificate, which is awarded based on the measureQuick score.

Short of that, Holtzclaw recommends asking the contractor to complete and submit either the ACCA Standard 9 installation checklist or the manufacturer’s installation checklist.

Understand what a fair price is

I wrote a guide to market-rate prices for heat pumps based on hundreds of real quotes that were submitted to the heat pump marketplace where I used to work. It’s almost a year old now, and it contains data from only a handful of states, but it should still be mostly accurate as of early 2025. In short, anything from $6,000 to $36,000 after incentives is a normal price for a heat pump. It can go higher or lower depending on rebates, home size, system type, financial incentives, and more, but 80% of quotes fall within that range.

Some outrageous proposals are baked into those estimates, from contractors attempting to charge twice as much as their competitors for an equivalent scope of work. This is likely a side effect of the sales-y culture at some HVAC companies, where comfort consultants are paid on commission and have aggressive sales targets to hit. Fitz, the co-founder of Amply, said that he encountered the same thing when he was gathering quotes for his home.

In contrast, some contractors are totally transparent with their pricing. I’ve seen a few companies that post a pricing menu on their website. Others participate in group-buy programs with pre-negotiated prices. The Laminar Collective in the Boston area, for example, has run some of these group buys and offers public pricing menus. If you can find one in your area, it’s a great benchmark even if you don’t ultimately hire one of those contractors.

Fitz was quick to point out that there’s rarely one right way to design a good heat pump, and a higher price could be worth paying. But you need to be able to recognize the difference, and that’s why it’s important to ask about the load calculation, ductwork, and other factors.

Finding a pro who actually knows their stuff when it comes to modern heat pumps might take some patience and persistence. But you’ll be more comfortable, save energy, and probably avoid some repairs over the years. Plus, you’ll get to play a small part in sending a message to the HVAC industry: Customers are getting smarter and demanding better work.

This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp and Maxine Builder.