HVAC Quote Review ($99): A Builder Puts Your Heat Pump, Furnace, Boiler, AC, HRV or Water Heater Quotes on One Grid and Tells You Which to Sign

Heating, Cooling & VentilationIndependent review

HVAC Quote Review: A Builder Reads Your Heat Pump, Furnace or Boiler Quotes Against Your House Before You Sign

Up to three quotes and your photos, on one grid, with a plain answer. No contractor behind it, no commission on who you hire.

Three heat pump quotes: $10,800, $13,900 and $17,400. One names a model, one names a brand, one names a “cold-climate system”. One sized it from a heat loss, one from the old furnace sticker, one does not say. One includes the electrical and the old furnace coming out; the other two are silent. That is a normal week. The review puts all three on one grid, prices what each one left out, and tells you which one to sign or what to ask first.

Reviews are done by a Tarion-registered Ontario builder with 300-plus houses behind him, who has had heat pumps, furnaces, boilers, radiant floors and HRVs installed in them since the early 1990s. Turnaround three business days.

What you get

HVAC Quote Review
$99

Up to three quotes, plus your photos. HST added at checkout.

  • Every quote put on the same line-by-line grid, side by side
  • Whether a heat loss was done, and whether the capacity on the quote matches it
  • The exact model numbers checked against the NRCan cold-climate list, and the rated capacity at your design temperature
  • What each one leaves out, in dollars: ducts, electrical, panel capacity, line set, condensate, venting, gas line, the old unit, commissioning
  • Backup heat spelled out: strips, the furnace, or nothing
  • The rebate claim checked: participating contractor, pre-approval, the per-ton amount for your heating fuel
  • The licences to ask for: TSSA, 313A or 313D and ODP, ESA
  • A plain answer: sign this one, go back to that one with these questions, or walk
Order the quote review

More than three quotes, or a new-house mechanical package with plans, is quoted separately; email first. Design and permit drawings (the CSA F280 heat loss, $395, and the full HVAC design, $695) are done by OntarioHeatLoss.ca, not by this review.

How it works

  1. Order. Pay by card on the Stripe page. HST is added at checkout; you get an emailed receipt and a page telling you exactly what to send.
  2. Send the paper and the pictures. Reply to the receipt email with the quotes as PDFs or clear phone photos, the result from the heat pump vs gas calculator or the system comparison if you ran one, and photos of the furnace label, the outdoor unit label and the electrical panel.
  3. Get the answer. Within three business days: the grid, the capacity and model check, the blanks priced, the rebate check, and the recommendation with the questions to send back.
  4. Use it. Send the questions, get the revised quotes, sign the right one. Most weeks the cheap quote comes back higher once the electrical and the old unit are in, and the dear one turns out to be the only one that did a heat loss.

What it is not

It is not a site visit, a heat loss or an equipment design. Nobody comes to the house for $99; the quotes, the calculator sheet and your photos are what gets read. If the paper shows something that needs a person or a design first (no heat loss on a new house, a gas venting question, an electrical panel at its limit), the review says so and says who.

What gets found, most weeks

  • No heat loss on any of the three, and three different tonnages for the same house.
  • A “cold-climate” heat pump whose model number is not on the cold-climate list.
  • Capacity quoted at 8.3 C and nothing at minus 25.
  • “Electrical by others” on a house with a 100 A panel.
  • A combi boiler sized for the showers going onto a slab that needs a third of it, with no word about turndown.
  • “Rebate included” from a company that is not a participating contractor, or with no pre-approval in the schedule.
  • An HRV quoted with no balancing, and a radiant house quoted with no cooling at all.
  • A rental water heater or furnace contract signed at the door, which in Ontario is void unless you called them first.

Before you order, the free version

The line-by-line grid is on the site and you can fill it in yourself. The installation checklist, the licensing page and the rebate rules cover most of what the review checks. If the grid answers it, keep your $99.

Questions people ask

Can you review just one quote?

Yes. One quote gets the same grid, checked against what a complete quote for your house should include, so you know what to ask before you sign it.

Will you tell me which contractor to use?

I will tell you which quote is the one to sign, and why, and what to ask before you do. I do not keep a list of companies to send you to and I do not take a commission. If the house is in Simcoe County, Muskoka or the Georgian Bay area and you want us to price the work ourselves, say so in the email.

What if the system is already in and it is not working?

Send the invoice, the model numbers and what it is doing. The review tells you whether the size, the backup, the ducts or the settings are the likely problem and what to ask the installer for, starting with the commissioning sheet.

Is the fee refundable?

If I cannot read what you send (illegible photos, a quote with no scope at all), I will say so before starting and refund it. Once the review is written, it is not.

Three pieces of paper, one answer

The grid, the capacity check and the questions, in three business days, for $99. Then sign the right one.

Order the quote review, $99Back to the section