How Much Should I Charge for an HVAC Job?
It's July and you quoted a condenser swap in the driveway, fast, before the homeowner called someone else. Then the lineset was too short and the pad had to go. You won the job and lost the profit.
Put in your own numbers. The calculator adds your overhead, prices the job to the margin you want, and shows what you keep.
HVAC Job Price Calculator
- Materials$5,500.00
- Labour$600.00
- Permit and Disposal$250.00
- Overhead$952.50
- Job cost$7,302.50
Questions
Do I mark up equipment the same as labour?
You can, but you don't have to. Your margin target is for the whole job, and this calculator prices everything to one margin. If you'd rather carry less on a costly furnace or condenser, put more on labour so the job still lands on the margin you need.
What belongs in equipment and parts for an HVAC install?
Everything you buy for the job: the unit, the lineset, the pad or brackets, the thermostat, refrigerant, fittings, wire and the small parts you'd otherwise forget. Put the total in Materials per System.
Markup or margin: which should I use to price a HVAC job?
Price from margin. Markup is your profit as a share of your cost. Margin is your profit as a share of the price. They are not the same number: mark a $1,000 cost up 30% and you charge $1,300, but your margin is 23%, because $300 is 23% of $1,300. Price from the margin you want and you know what you keep.
Should overhead go into the price of a HVAC job?
Yes. Your truck, insurance, phone, tools and the hours you spend quoting jobs you don't win are all paid for by the jobs you do win. A simple way to set it: add up last year's overhead, divide it by last year's job costs, and use that percentage here.
How do I turn this price into a HVAC quote?
Sign up for HomeJet free and build the quote with a line for each part of the job: materials, labour and the extras. HomeJet adds your sales tax. The quote stays on the job with the photos and notes, so when it's accepted your crew already has what they need and the invoice comes from the same lines. It's free for one-person businesses, with no credit card.
You Priced the Margin. Now Keep It.
A good price only holds if the job runs clean. In HomeJet the quote, the photos, the notes and your crew's updates live on one job, so nobody chases details by text and nothing falls through the cracks. Less chaos, fewer mistakes, more of this margin kept. Free for one-person businesses, no credit card.