BDA's AC vs HP Cost Survey | Round 1

How much more does it cost to install a heat pump instead of an air conditioner?

In 2023, the Building Decarbonization Alliance (BDA), together with Efficiency Canada, the Canadian Climate Institute and the Greenhouse Institute, published The Cool Way to Heat Homes, which examined the operating-cost implications of installing central heat pumps instead of central air conditioners in Canadian homes.

Stakeholders raised questions about what that would cost the homeowner, so in June 2024 we published a follow-up, Incremental Cost of Installing a Central Heat Pump Instead of a Central Air Conditioner, drawing on costing data from 12 respondents representing 24 HVAC companies in British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Two years on, those figures are still part of what governments and industry work from.

The market has moved since then. This survey asks what the difference looks like in 2026, in more detail than the 2024 work could: by province, by equipment tier, and at each step from the manufacturer to the homeowner.

This is the first of two rounds. This one collects the data. In a few weeks we will send a shorter second round showing you the ranges the industry reported, asking you to validate them and to tell us what sits behind the spread. Each round takes under ten minutes.

How your data is handled

• Your name, company and email are removed from the dataset before any figures are analysed. They are used only to send you the second survey round.
• We ask what you charge your customer. We never ask what you pay your supplier or what your margins are
• Individual figures will never be published and never shared with anyone outside the BDA team, including government. Only averages and other aggregate statistics leave this study.
• We name participating companies only with your permission, and never beside a figure.

If your company needs a confidentiality agreement in place before filling this costing form, contact us. We only need to be able to publish aggregated results; we do not need to share results that identify individual companies.

Questions about the study or this questionnaire:

Mathieu Lévesque, Technology & Alternatives Lead, 

mlevesque@transitionaccelerator.ca