A Central Ohio heat pump project prices across a wide band, and the width is the useful information. A straightforward single-zone replacement on existing ducts in a Hilliard or Reynoldsburg ranch can land in the mid four figures. A full conversion in a prewar German Village brick house, with duct corrections, a panel upgrade, and a cold-climate variable-speed system, can run past twenty thousand. This guide maps the band, names the levers that move a project up and down it, and shows how to read three bids in a market where, as our rebates guide explains, no rebate is coming to blur the arithmetic.
The Bands
| Project type | Typical installed range |
|---|---|
| Single-zone ductless, one room or addition | $4,500 to $8,000 |
| Ducted changeout on sound existing ducts | $8,000 to $14,000 |
| Ducted changeout with duct corrections | $11,000 to $17,000 |
| Multi-zone ductless, whole small house | $12,000 to $19,000 |
| Full conversion with panel work, prewar stock | $15,000 to $25,000 |
Treat the bands as a map, not a menu. Any single address can sit high or low in its band for reasons the site visit will reveal, which is why a phone-quoted single number is the least trustworthy figure in this market.
What Moves the Number
Ducts first. Central Ohio's postwar and builder stock, Whitehall through Westerville out to Dublin, mostly carries usable ductwork, and reusing it is the single biggest cost saver available. But ducts sized for a gas furnace's hot, fast air sometimes run undersized for a heat pump's cooler, steadier supply, and the honest bidder measures static pressure rather than assuming. Duct corrections are not padding; an undersized return will choke a correctly sized machine.
The panel second. Older stock, the prewar streets of Victorian Village and Italian Village, the early postwar rings of Bexley and Grandview Heights, often runs 100 amp service. A single-zone addition rarely troubles it; a whole-home conversion can force new circuits or a service upgrade, which adds real money and utility lead time. The honest bidder opens the panel at the site visit; the panel question belongs in the first phone call.
Equipment tier third. A standard-efficiency single-stage machine and a cold-climate variable-speed machine can sit thousands apart. For a house that needs full-load heating through single-digit design nights, the variable-speed tier, specified in our cold-weather guide, is usually the right buy; for a shoulder-season addition, it can be over-purchase. The tier decision should follow the load calculation, never precede it.
Scope last, and largest. One zone or six, replacement or conversion, line-set runs, condensate management, controls: scope is why the table has bands instead of numbers, and why an itemized quote is non-negotiable.
The Housing Stock, Priced
German Village and Victorian Village brick: beautiful thermal mass, no cavities to insulate, frequently no ducts, sometimes knob-and-tube surprises. These homes convert well on ductless or compact-ducted systems, but they sit at the top of the cost bands and reward the contractor who has done prewar work before. Clintonville four-squares and Beechwold colonials: usually ducted, often leaky; a blower-door test before equipment sizing can shrink the machine and the price. Dublin, Powell, and New Albany builder stock: clean changeouts on sound ducts, the cheapest conversions in the metro. Rural edges, Delaware, Pickaway, Licking counties: propane and oil households where operating savings are largest and where a co-op meter may add a small check, per the address rule in our rebates guide.
No Rebate Means the Price Is the Price
Central Ohio's incentive picture is effectively empty for IOU addresses, and that changes bid reading in the buyer's favor. No quote here can absorb a program check or lean on incentive theater; every dollar on the page is a dollar of scope, equipment, or margin. That strips the comparison to parts you can verify: the room-by-room load calculation, the model numbers with published capacity figures, the duct findings, the panel line, the itemized price. A high bid must justify itself with scope. A low bid must show what it left out. A bid that arrives without documents is not a cheaper bid, it is an incomplete one, and incomplete bids grow after signing.
A Worked Example
Take a 1,700 square foot Clintonville four-square, gas furnace at end of life, central air from the same decade, ducts intact but never sealed. The credible bid arrives with a load calculation putting design-day heating in the low 30s of thousands of BTU, quotes a variable-speed cold-climate system by model number with its published low-temperature capacity attached, prices duct sealing and a modest return-air correction, confirms the 150 amp panel carries the new circuit, and lands in the low teens of thousands installed. The suspicious bid arrives the same afternoon at nine thousand flat, no load calculation, no duct line, no panel note. The gap between them is not price; it is scope you will pay for later.
Operating Cost Is the Second Price
The installed number is half the story. A household converting from propane, oil, or electric resistance buys its heat cheaper every hour the machine runs, and the payback arithmetic, run fuel by fuel in our oil comparison, is what justifies the project. A household leaving a functioning gas furnace faces the longest payback in the metro and should run the numbers coldly before committing. Either way, the first summer delivers a quiet dividend: a modern heat pump is also the best air conditioner most of these houses have ever had, with humidity control the window units and tired condensers never managed.
Timing the Project
The cheapest heat pump is the one bought before the furnace dies in January. Shoulder seasons bring better contractor availability, calmer scheduling, and time to collect three real bids. An emergency replacement compresses all of it into a weekend and usually buys whatever is on the truck. If your heating equipment is past fifteen years old, pricing the replacement now, on your calendar, is the single largest cost lever you control.
Renters, Landlords, and the Cost Conversation
The metro's rental stock complicates the cost question in a familiar way: the party paying the winter bill is often not the party who buys the equipment. Short North and Italian Village walk-ups, Linden and Franklinton singles held as rentals, postwar doubles across the Hilltop: much of the region's most expensive heat, electric baseboard above all, warms tenants who cannot replace it. For an owner, the arithmetic in this guide reads differently but favorably: a conversion priced in the ordinary bands buys a property that shows better, rents better with real cooling attached, and carries operating costs a tenant can actually pay. A tenant's cheapest move is forwarding this page. An owner's cheapest move is pricing the project in shoulder season, on a calendar, with three itemized bids, exactly as an owner-occupant would.
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