Frequently Asked Questions
What is your process?
We make it easy to upgrade your home to heat pumps. You'll get both the in-home expertise of a seasoned HVAC technician and a modern online experience that lets you understand and explore your options on your own time.
Our process is simple:
- See your options and get an initial estimate entirely online. Learn what you can expect without having to wait days or weeks.
- Get a finalized quote with an in-home visit. An experienced HVAC technician will verify your home details and equipment sizing to provide a finalized, tailored quote.
- Schedule your installation. If you accept your quote, we'll schedule installation right away. Installation for most homes is a 1-day job.
There is no committment or cost to you until you accept your finalized quote.
What makes you different?
Throughout the process, we strive to make this the easiest upgrade you'll ever make to your home.
- We help you make an educated decision, so that you aren't at the mercy of a salesperson.
- We combine advanced software with seasoned expertise from the best HVAC technicians around to give you full transparency into your options.
- We automatically help you identify rebates and incentives to reduce your cost.
How do you work with contractors?
We vett contractors to connect you to trustworthy, expert technicians who know heat pumps in and out.
Finding a contractor on your own can be overwhelming and full of uncertainty. It's hard to know which contractors to trust. We'll act as your gateway to the best heat pump contractors in your area, so that you don't need to filter through local installer after local installer to find heat pump expertise.
You'll ultimately buy your heat pumps directly from our establish HVAC contractor partner, but we'll be stewarding your process and making sure things go smoothly from start to finish.
How competitive are your prices?
We aim to provide you as good or better a price than anyone else can offer.
By providing you with research and tools understand your options online, we can save expensive technician time and a lengthy process that typically costs hundreds of dollars just to provide you an estimate.
We believe that many homeowners prefer to do their own research, whenever is most convenient for them. We can save time and money by providing you information and transparency online instead of only through a technician or salesperson that you have to schedule days or even weeks in advance.
Why is your estimate higher than others?
Not all equipment is equal, and we only work with the most advanced, highest efficiency equipment on the market.
If you have other quotes for less, make sure that:
- You aren't being sold low efficiency, single-stage or two-stage equipment that will deliver subpar comfort and higher energy usage
- All necessary electrical work and duct work is included
- Ductwork has been checked for compatibility and upgrades aren't required
- The installer is experienced with heat pumps and is up-to-date on the technology, not working from outdated rules-of-thumb
What does my initial estimate include?
Your estimate covers the full expected cost of your heat pump upgrade:
- Heat pump equipment
- Labor
- Removing old equipment
If your home needs electrical work (like adding 240V outlets or upgrading electrical panels), additional ductwork or insulation upgrades, we'll identify it during the on-site and add it to your final quote.
What will my final quote include?
Your final quote will include all necessary work and equipment for your heat pump upgrade:
- Heat pump equipment
- Labor
- Removing old equipment
- Any necessary electrical equipment
- Any ductwork or other necessary structural improvements
Once you accept your final quote, your price won't change.
How long will installation take?
Installation typically takes under a day to complete. Some homes may require additional electrical or duct work which may take additional time, but we'll make sure you know what will happen and win before you accept your final quote.
Why does this exist?
We've had a number of close friends go through the journey of electrifying their homes. We found that even if you really wanted a heat pump, the process was still incredibly difficult. The pricing was opaque. They had to price shop amongst a number of contractors.
We wanted to make it as easy as possible for anyone in our community to upgrade their home to heat pumps.
Will a heat pump save us money?
Yes, your utility bills will almost certainly be lower with heat pumps than with fossil fuel alternatives or conventional air conditioners.
We only work with the most advanced, variable-speed, high efficiency heat pumps from respected manufacturers. These heat pumps can lower your energy bills even compared to brand new natural gas furnaces. Homes using propane or fuel oil could save thousands of dollars per year.
We analyzed a nationwide inventory of homes from the U.S. Energy Information Agency and found that 97% of homes would have saved money with heat pumps compared to their existing equipment in 2021. Since then, fossil fuel prices have only further increased relative to electricity prices.
Will a heat pump help the environment?
Yes! Heat pumps can save 30 tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over the lifetime of the equipment. To put that into perspective, an American's entire annual emissions is 15 tons on average, and the average per capital annual emissions gobally is 4 tons. That's huge!
Upgrading your home to heat pumps is one of the three most meaningful decisions you can make to help slow global warming, together with transitioning to an electric vehicle and getting solar.
Heat pumps are most environmentally friendly when powered with zero-emissions electricity, which will happen more and more frequently as the grid decarbonizes over the coming decade. But even with the grid as it stands today, it is lower emissions to use electricity partially generated by natural gas plants than it is to burn natural gas directly in the home.
We also take into account the global warming impact of refrigerants, which heat pumps use to achieve such high efficiency. We assume typical refrigerant leakage in the emissions numbers we provide on this site, but through exceptional installation service and proactive maintenance, we strive to avoid these emissions for your home.
Will a heat pump keep my family warm/cool?
Yes! If there's any doubt, we'll tell you and we'll suggest things you can do instead.
Some homes may be so leaky or poorly insulated that the best decision for comfort, cost, and environment is to invest in other areas like insulation or sealing before adding heat pumps. If we believe this is the case for your home, we'll tell you.
That said, heat pumps are far more capable now than they were years ago. Mitsubishi hyper-heating heat pumps can maintain 100% of their heating capacity down to -5 degrees outdoors, and we account for any drop-off in capacity or efficiency due to outdoor conditions in our system sizing and estimates.
What size heat pumps do we need?
The size your home needs depends on the size and shape of your home, how quickly it gains or loses heat as outdoor conditions change, internal sources of heat like hot water and other appliances, and outdoor conditions. We measure each of these for your home down to the hour to make sure your heat pumps will keep you comfortable in any condition.
How do air-source heat pumps differ from ground-source or geothermal heat pumps?
All of the heat pumps we install are air-source heat pumps, meaning that they gather heat from the air outside to heat the home and expel heat into the outdoor air to cool it. As long as the outside air temperature is above about -270F (absolute zero), it contains heat energy!
Air-source heat pumps are the most cost-effective solution for most of the country.
In some more extreme cold-weather climates like parts of New England, ground-source heat pumps also make sense. These use the same principles as air-source heat pumps, but exchange heat with the ground outside instead of the air.
A few hundred feet underground, the ambient temperature tends to remain a stable 45°F-75°F. In the northeast, the ground temperature is around 55°F all year round, which means it contains a higher density of heat energy that is easier to gather during very cold winters. The downside of a ground-source heat pump is that it requires a bigger upfront investment to drill holes underground, but some utilities in cold climates offer great incentives to help offset that otherwise high upfront cost. If you're interested in learning about ground-source heat pumps, we recommend you check out Dandelion Energy.
What are centrally-ducted heat pumps and mini-split heat pumps?
Centrally-ducted heat pumps distribute heat throughout the home from a central air mover. Kelvin's all-electric and dual-fuel options are both centrally-ducted configurations.
Mini-split heat pumps don't use ductwork. Instead, they use individual head units with fans incorporated to condition a single room.
Other heat pump configurations include packaged units, multi-zone ductless units, and compact-ducted units. During the on-site visit to finalize your quote, we'll let you know if we think one of these less common configuration is better for your home.
Why should I choose one option over the other?
If you're ready to fully electrify your home, go with our all electric option.
If you want to transition gradually over time and have existing furnaces that still work, you can save some money now with a dual fuel system. This system will use your existing furnace as backup heat for the coldest hours. It won't be as efficient or climate-friendly as an all-electric system, but it's leagues better than no heat pumps at all. You'll be able to replace the remaining furnaces with electric resistive heat strips down the road to end up with an all-electric system eventually.
If you want to add conditioning to a space that doesn't have it currently, go with mini-splits.
What would you recommend and why?
We only offer options we think will result in a great outcome for you -- we won't offer you any 'bad' choices.
That said, we think the all-electric option is worth the upfront investment if you have the means.
Is there any difference between one heat pump brand vs. another?
Generally speaking, we don't believe there's a meaningful difference between high-end, high efficiency equipment from the likes of American Standard / Trane, Carrier, Lennox and the rest. We only sell equipment we believe will be reliable, comfortable and climate-friendly.
The primary difference among high-efficiency options exist between Mitsubishi's hyper-heating units and the rest of the market. Mitsubishi's hyper-heating units maintain heating capacity to much lower temperatures than other units. This can be a good thing for both cold climates, which experience extreme temperatures more often, and milder climates, where this can eliminate the need for backup resistive heating and associated electrical work.
We do all of the math and analysis required to make sure that any heat pump we suggest is well fit for your home, and we give you cost, comfort and climate impact estimates for each so that you can understand the trade-offs.
My furnaces still work, can I keep them?
That's up to you! If you want to transition over time to an all-electric system but keep your existing furnaces as backup in the meantime, we offer what is known as a dual fuel system.
The benefit of keeping your furnaces as backup is that it allows you to defer some electrical work that may be necessary until later. Your system won't be as efficient as it can be until then, but that trade-off may be worth it given your personal situation.
In these setups, you don't need to remove anything. It's an easy way to "dip your toe in the water" when it comes to heat pumps
If you're on some other heating source (fuel oil, electric resitive), then you are almost certainly better off removing your old heating.
I'm shopping around, what questions should I ask contractors?
At the end of the day, we want our customers to do what's right for them. Our mission is to make comfortable, climate-friendly homes affordable and accessible for everyone. If working with someone else means you can get heat pumps when you otherwise wouldn't have, by all means do! And we'd even like to help you no matter if you ultimately work with us or someone else, because it both aligns with our mission and helps us improve.
The HVAC industry currently works by a "triple-bid" process, where home owners have to get three different quotes just to understand whether they're getting a fair price or not. We aim to change that, so that home owners can come straight to Kelvin and know that they're getting a fair price. That's why we give price estimates upfront to anyone who wants one.
If you get quotes from independent contractors, be sure to ask the following:
- How often do you work with heat pumps?
- How much heating and cooling capacity do we need? How did you calculate that?
- Can you perform a Manual J to size our heating load, and can you compare it to our past utility bills to ensure accuracy?
- Will you ensure the refrigerant from our existing A/C will be handled properly?
- What is the SEER and HSPF of the units you are quoting? Are they the most efficient available? Are they variable-speed, inverter-driven units?
- Is our ductwork sufficient?
- Is all electrical work included in the quote?
If you have a question comparing our estimate or quote to any other bids you receive, please reach out! We'd love to help you compare them.