How prices are made

Every range on a city page comes from up to four sources. The page names which ones it used and the date each was read.

The four sources

1. Public baseline. The National Residential Efficiency Measures Database from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory gives a low, typical and high installed cost per system size for the United States. The 2024 release is stated in 2023 dollars. In this version the figures were read via hvacbase.org on October 19, 2026, because the NREL site did not answer that day. The baseline sets the range before any local source is added.
2. Verified contractor ranges. A contractor that publishes its terms on this site gives its own installed range per system. The page shows that range beside the baseline. It never replaces the baseline on its own.
3. City permits. Where a city publishes its mechanical permits, the page counts residential replacement permits, the fee on them, and the job value the contractor declared. Declared values are under-reported, so the page reads them as a floor and prints the middle half and the median.
4. Homeowner-reported quotes. A homeowner who uses the estimate tool can report a quote already in hand. Quotes join a city page when at least 10 homeowners in that city report one. The page prints the count and the median only.

The arithmetic

The low and the high of a range are the baseline's low and high for that system size. The typical price is the baseline's mid. When Verified contractor ranges exist, the page prints them as their own rows. When permits exist, the page prints the declared values beside the range. A metro wage factor is not applied yet. When it is, the method version on the page changes and the changelog says so.

One table per city

Each city has a furnace page, an AC page and a heat pump page. Some cities also have a mini-split page. All the pages of a city use one baseline table, so their numbers agree. No metro factor is applied yet. The Bureau of Labor Statistics refused the wage file on October 22, 2026. A city that publishes no permit feed gets no permit facts on its pages. Listed contractors come from a state license roster where the state publishes one. Today that roster is the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries contractor data. A Listed name shows a license, not a review.

Rebates

A rebate line comes from the utility's own published chart. The page prints the amount, the minimum efficiency, the conditions, the valid dates and a link to the chart. A rebate past its valid date is removed from the page.

Dates and corrections

The ranges are market figures. They are never one contractor's prices, and nothing on a city page lets a reader work out what one contractor charges.

A range from this site is republished only with a link to the page it is on. See Terms.

Each range carries a quarter and an updated date. The permit window is printed on the page. A correction is a new line in the changelog with the date. The editor is named on every page and is responsible for its numbers.