New buildings in the city can no longer burn gas, and the state is paying to convert existing ones. We'll tell you whether a heat pump makes sense for your building — including when it doesn't — and show you both sets of numbers before you decide.
Local Law 154 prohibits on-site fossil fuel combustion in new buildings in New York City. Buildings under seven stories are already covered, with taller buildings following in 2027. For new construction and gut renovations, the heating system decision has effectively been made — the remaining questions are which electric system and how it's sized.
For existing buildings, the NYS Clean Heat program provides incentives for qualifying heat pump installations. It's administered through your utility — Con Edison or National Grid, depending on your address and your gas service. The incentive depends on the equipment, the system type, and whether the heat pump displaces your fossil-fuel heating entirely or only part of it.
If your boiler or furnace is near the end of its life, this is the decision point. Replacing like-for-like with gas locks in that equipment for the next fifteen to twenty years, with no incentive attached. Converting to a heat pump brings incentive money to the table and may land below the cost of the gas equivalent once it's applied.
It doesn't always. That's why we run both numbers.
Yes, if it's the right equipment and it's sized correctly. Cold-climate heat pumps are rated to deliver heat well below freezing, and they're a different product from the units that gave heat pumps a bad reputation twenty years ago.
The honest caveat: capacity does fall as it gets colder. A system sized at a mild outdoor temperature will come up short on the coldest nights. That's a design problem, not a technology problem, and it's why we size against design conditions and specify backup heat where the building needs it.
This is the question most contractors skip, and it deserves a real answer. Electricity in New York City is expensive. Whether a heat pump costs you more or less per month to run depends on your current fuel, your current equipment's efficiency, your building envelope, and how you use the space.
When we quote a conversion we estimate the operating cost both ways and show you the comparison. If the number comes out against the heat pump for your building, we'll tell you that, and the incentive won't change our answer.
Electrical service. A heat pump adds load, and older buildings and houses frequently don't have the panel capacity or service size to take it without an upgrade. That's a real cost, it's rarely mentioned in a sales pitch, and it's one of the first things we check. You'll see it in the estimate, not in a change order halfway through the job.
The right system depends on the building, not on what we happen to stock.
Single or multi-zone wall and ceiling units. The usual answer in brownstones, row houses, and any building with no path to run duct.
A central heat pump using existing or new ductwork. The straightforward conversion for houses that already have a furnace and ducts in a basement.
Variable refrigerant flow for larger residential and commercial buildings, with independent control across many zones from one outdoor unit.
Apartment-level units on a building condenser water loop, and geothermal systems using ground temperature as the heat source.
A heat pump paired with existing fossil-fuel heat for the coldest conditions. A partial conversion, with partial incentives, where full electrification doesn't fit yet.
Domestic hot water from a heat pump rather than a gas or electric-resistance tank. Often incentive-eligible on its own.
We measure the building and calculate the actual heating and cooling load. Equipment picked by square footage short-cycles, leaves rooms humid, and fails early. The calculation is the job.
Panel capacity, service size, and circuit availability checked before anything is specified, so an upgrade appears in the estimate rather than mid-project.
Conventional replacement and heat pump conversion, with incentives applied and estimated operating costs for each. You compare them on paper.
As a participating Clean Heat contractor we handle the program submissions rather than leaving you to chase them.
Nitrogen-purged brazing, evacuation to specification, charge by weight, and documented startup readings — pressures, superheat, subcooling, amperage, and temperature split.
Nothing is performed or billed without a signed estimate. No verbal approvals, no surprises on the invoice.
Often, but not always. Ducts sized for a furnace move air at a different temperature than a heat pump does, so the existing system may need modification. We evaluate the ductwork as part of the load calculation rather than assuming it will work.
No. A dual-fuel setup keeps your existing heat for the coldest conditions and runs the heat pump the rest of the year. Incentives are generally lower for partial displacement than for full, which is part of the comparison we put in front of you.
A single-zone ductless system is usually a day. A multi-zone system or a whole-building conversion runs considerably longer, and an electrical service upgrade adds time for permits and utility coordination. You get a schedule with the estimate.
They run year-round rather than seasonally, so filters and coils need attention more often than equipment that sits idle half the year. Our 5-Star maintenance plans cover this.
Buildings with reasonable insulation, available electrical capacity, and somewhere to put an outdoor unit are generally straightforward. Buildings with none of those are harder and sometimes not worth it. We'd rather tell you that at the evaluation than halfway through.
We'll evaluate the system, run the load calculation, check your electrical capacity, and give you the conventional and heat pump numbers side by side with incentives applied.