Heat Pump Installation & Service

A heat pump install is more than swapping equipment. It is a home-specific system design: load calculation (Manual J), refrigerant line routing, air handler placement, electrical capacity check, and on ducted systems sometimes ductwork retrofit. Skip any of those and you end up with an oversized system, bad airflow, or rebate paperwork that won’t pass review.

What’s included:

• Full-home load calculation (Manual J)
• Equipment sizing and brand selection
• Rebate eligibility check across BayREN, MCE Heat Pump HVAC, PG&E thermostat and ENERGY STAR programs, EBCE/Ava in Alameda County, and manufacturer instant rebates. Programs and amounts vary; we confirm what’s currently paying and handle the paperwork.
• Permit and inspection coordination
• Removal and disposal of old equipment
• Refrigerant line set inspection (flush and reuse where viable, replace if damaged), indoor air handler, outdoor condenser
• Electrical scope (existing circuit retained when sized appropriately, sub-panel only when actually needed)
• Commissioning and system balancing
• 10-year manufacturer parts warranty plus 10-year labor warranty
• Performance logs established for baseline

Bay Area heat pump considerations:

Heat pumps work efficiently in our climate because winter design temperature is around 32 to 35 degrees in inland cities and rarely below freezing. Modern variable-speed units (Daikin, Mitsubishi, Bosch IDS) deliver full rated capacity in those conditions. Our climate does not require cold-climate-rated equipment, which means standard high-efficiency models are typically the best price-to-performance answer.

Refrigerant lines and R-454B:

We design new installs around R-454B, the current low-GWP refrigerant standard replacing R-410A. Existing line sets can sometimes be flushed and reused; sometimes they cannot. We pressure-test and inspect line sets on every retrofit and tell you whether reuse is safe before any work begins.

Electrical and panel:

About a third of older Bay Area homes need electrical work to support a heat pump conversion. Sub-panels run $1,800 to $4,500 depending on existing capacity and routing. We include an electrical assessment at the estimate; the panel work is coordinated with a licensed electrician under the same project.