HVAC Bid: Charles A. Klein & Sons

by J Scott on July 20, 2014

I’ve had a lot of trouble getting decent HVAC bids for this project. Several HVAC companies never got back to me, a couple were ridiculously priced and then there were a couple I just didn’t like dealing with during the bid process. So, I decided to go with the same company we’re using for our plumbing — Charles A. Klein & Sons. Their prices weren’t as good as their plumbing prices, but still pretty decent, and I’ve met a couple people who used them and were happy with their HVAC installation.

Here’s how the numbers break down for our HVAC work:

  • Water/Sewer Line Installation: $200
  • HVAC Rough-In: $10,760
  • HVAC Finish & Testing: $2,780
  • Humidifier/Air Cleaner: $1,075

We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to install a whole house humidifier and/or electric air cleaner, but I’ve included those in the bid just in case.

TOTAL BID: $14,815

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

Ben Leybovich July 20, 2014 at 11:05 am

Forced air gas furnace, Exchanger, Compressor, rough and finish – that’s not a bad price at all for this size house 🙂

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J Scott July 20, 2014 at 3:06 pm

Hey Ben –

It’s actually all electric, so it’s two heat pumps (a 2.0 ton and a 2.5 ton). Not a horrible price, but installing in new construction is EASY… 🙂

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Mike S July 21, 2014 at 9:30 am

J can you expand on why you went heat pump route vs gas? Are you using a Daikon or Mitsubishi ductless system? I’m looking into these myself right now.

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J Scott July 21, 2014 at 9:59 am

Hey Mike –

There is no gas service on our street. The street over has it, so technically, if we wanted it we could probably pay (a lot) to get it run to our street/house. But, we’re okay with it.

We’re not using a ductless system — we’re going with two forced-air heat-pumps and full ductwork throughout the finished portion of the house. While I think the ductless systems are interesting, I’ve never tried one in person, and didn’t want my house to the be the guinea pig… 🙂

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Roy N. July 22, 2014 at 9:56 pm

Our experience has been that ductless and ducted systems perform with similar COPs, but differ in suitable applications. Ductless systems work best in open areas (i.e. not a good choice for a 1350ft^2 second floor with 4/5-bedrooms).

Additionally, with both systems, you require an ancillary heat source (at least here in the North where winter temperatures spend days/weeks below the range of the hardiest heat pump). With ductless heat pumps, you are commonly left with electric resistance heating or electric thermal mass heaters installed in each room. With a ducted heat pump, your ancillary heating coils go in the plenum, heating the air in one location. The traditional weak/expensive-to-operate component of any ducted system has been the blower, but modern multi-speed DC brushless blower motors have lowered their hunger from hundreds of watts to tens of watts.

J. I would go with the electrostatic/hepa filters on any forced air system. You might also consider zoning gates/dampers to give you some of the localised benefits of ductless units.

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J Scott July 22, 2014 at 9:58 pm

Roy –

Great information and thank you for the recommendation!

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