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HVAC System Cost Comparison Calculator Ontario (2026): Gas Furnace and AC, Ducted Heat Pump, Dual Fuel, Combi Boiler With Radiant Floors, and Air-to-Water Heat Pump, Installed and Over 15 Years
Heating, Cooling & VentilationFree Calculator
Five Ways to Heat and Cool the Same House, Priced Whole: Equipment, Ducts or Floors, Ventilation and Hot Water, Then Fifteen Years of Bills.
Gas furnace and AC, ducted cold-climate heat pump, dual fuel, combi boiler with radiant floors, air-to-water heat pump with radiant floors. New build or existing house. No email address required.
Most heating quotes compare boxes. A furnace against a heat pump, one brand against another. But a radiant house needs a cooling plan that a furnace house does not, a heat pump house may need new ducts, and every tight house needs an HRV. This calculator prices each system the way it would actually be built, with its distribution, its ventilation and its hot water, so the comparison is house against house.
Step-by-step
Whole-House System Comparison (Ontario)
1
The house
Above grade plus finished basement. Radiant is priced on this area.
Sets a rough design heat loss in BTU/h per sq ft. A CSA F280 heat loss replaces this guess with the real number.
2
Your rates, all-in
Bill total divided by kWh. More on rates.
3
Where is the house?
Sets the installed-price adjustment, the heating degree-days and the winter design temperature.
Used only to tell you whether the house is in our direct service area. Not stored.
Enter a postal code to see service coverage.
BuildersOntario.com
Five Systems, One House
Illustrative Ontario comparison
| System | Installed, before HST | Energy per year | 15-year total with HST |
|---|
Lowest 15-year total$0
Example only. Installed prices are planning composites from published Ontario ranges checked October 2026, before HST, with the equipment share scaled to the heat loss: distribution (ducts or radiant tubing and manifolds), an HRV, and a water heater are included in every system so they compare fairly. Energy is space heating plus domestic hot water at the rates you entered, with the gas customer charge counted where gas is used; cooling and maintenance are left out because they are similar. Rebates are not subtracted. Not a quote, not a design, not a heat-loss calculation.
Request a Real Quotation
The house, the systems you are weighing and the numbers above become a written scope a mechanical contractor can quote on: the heat loss first, then each system with its distribution, ventilation and hot water spelled out. It goes straight to our inbox, and a copy comes back to you; reply to that copy with the house plans or a sketch, and the heat loss if you have one.
What this calculator does, and what it will not do!
It builds each of the five systems the way it would actually go into the house: the heat source, the way the heat gets to the rooms, the cooling, the HRV and the water heater. Then it prices the energy each one uses for space heat and hot water at your rates, and adds the years. A furnace looks cheap until you add the air conditioner; radiant looks dear until you notice it also replaced the water heater and the ductwork.
It does not design anything. The heat loss here is a rough number per square foot; the real one comes from a CSA F280 calculation, room by room, and it decides the equipment size, the loop spacing and whether the ducts can carry a heat pump. It also does not know your quotes. Use it to choose which two systems to get quoted, not which one to buy.
A rule of thumb: on a new 2,000 sq ft frame house with gas at the road, the furnace and AC is the cheapest to install and the two radiant systems are dearer by about $35,000 and $55,000, while the yearly energy bills of all five sit within a few hundred dollars of each other. Over fifteen years the install price decides most of it. People choose radiant for how the house feels, and I have never had one ask for the ducts back.
How each system is priced
| System | New build | Existing, with ducts | Plus, in every system |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Gas furnace + central AC | $10,500 + ducts $3,500 | $10,500 | Power-vented gas tank $2,750 |
| 2. Ducted cold-climate heat pump | $20,000 with ducts | $16,250 (with air handler) | Heat pump water heater $4,000 |
| 3. Dual fuel, standard heat pump | $15,500 + ducts $3,500 | $15,500 | Power-vented gas tank $2,750 |
| 4. Combi + radiant + ductless cooling | combi $7,500 + manifolds $7,000 + tubing $9 and topping $4 per sq ft + ductless $12,000 | tubing and topping +65% as a retrofit | Combi makes the hot water |
| 5. Air-to-water + radiant + ductless cooling | plant $25,000 + manifolds $7,000 + tubing and topping + ductless $12,000 | tubing and topping +65% | Indirect tank $2,000 |
Every system also carries an HRV: $2,500 designed into a new house, $3,500 as a retrofit. An existing house with no ducts adds a full duct retrofit, about $10,500, to systems 1 to 3. These are the same lines as the 2,000 sq ft house on the new home HVAC cost page. The equipment half of each price is scaled to the heat loss, so a small ICF load buys smaller, cheaper machines; ducts, tubing and the HRV are not scaled. Sources for each range: heat pump cost, combi boiler cost, air-to-water, ductwork and radiant floor cost.
Why Ontario prices are all over the map: for the same equipment class, the contractors and published price guides we checked were far apart: a cold-climate ducted heat pump from about $7,000 to $18,000 and up, a multi-zone mini-split from $6,000 to $22,000, a combi boiler from $3,500 to $10,000 and up, an air-to-water plant from $15,000 to $35,000 and up. Some of that is real scope (ducts, electrical, controls, commissioning), some is the company quoting, some is the season. The defaults here sit in the middle of each range. Get two or three quotes on the same written scope for the two systems you like best.
Where homeowners go wrong
- Comparing boxes instead of houses. A boiler quote with no cooling and a heat pump quote with no ducts are not the same job. Price the whole system or the cheaper one is a mirage.
- Forgetting the HRV in a radiant house. Radiant heats; it does not ventilate. The HRV needs its own ducts. Ventilating a radiant house.
- Sizing from square feet. This page does it as a rough guess; your installer should not. The sizing mistakes.
- Counting a rebate on a new house. The heat pump rebate excludes homes occupied six months or less.
- Picking on energy alone. The yearly bills are close in a tight house. Comfort, noise, cooling and what you want to service for twenty years are the real choice. Radiant vs forced air.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest way to heat and cool a new house in Ontario?
To install, a gas furnace with central air on new ducts, about $14,000 plus the HRV and water heater. To run, a heat pump system in a tight house is close to gas and far ahead of propane. Over fifteen years the three ducted systems usually finish within about $10,000 of each other in an SB-12 house, which is why comfort and the next twenty years of service decide it.
Is radiant floor heating worth it?
For comfort, yes, and it is what we put in our own houses. It costs more to install than ducts because the floor is the heater and the house still needs cooling and an HRV. Radiant floor cost and the best heat source for it.
Should I get dual fuel or all-electric?
With gas at the road and a typical frame house, dual fuel is the cautious choice and often the cheapest to run. All-electric saves the gas customer charge and one machine, and in a tight house a cold-climate unit carries it. Dual fuel explained.
Why does the ICF option change the answer?
The heat loss is about half, so the machines get smaller and the energy bills drop, but the ducts, tubing and HRV cost about the same. The cheapest systems stay cheapest; the gap in energy between them shrinks to a few hundred dollars a year.
Are these real quotes?
No. They are planning composites from published Ontario price ranges, and the guides themselves disagree by thousands of dollars. Use them to decide which systems to get quoted.
Two systems you like?
Start with a heat loss: OntarioHeatLoss.ca does the CSA F280 and the HVAC design a permit needs. Then get two quotes on each system, and send them to the $99 HVAC quote review; I will put them on one grid and show you what each one left out.
