We have a 1600 sq ft, 2 story house in MA with a (slowly dying) gas boiler powering cast iron baseboard radiators; cooling is through window ACs that are really inadequate during the 2-3 weeks of 90+ days. Backup heating is via a wood stove, which is capable of heating the whole house if need be. We have maxed out the insulation. We are getting quotes on mini splits to provide 100% of our heating and cooling. Apparently only the Mitsubishi hyper heat / H2i units qualify for the mass save rebate in our case.

The first quote says we need 44,000 BTUs, and a five-head system (48k at the heads, 42k outside unit) for $27k. The mass save rebate is 10k. Installation is a two day job and the parts appear to cost about $7k retail. So - $20k in labor for two days? if it is a four person team that is $2.5k per person per day.

It seems like the rebate is just causing installers to inflate their prices. We will see where the other quotes come in, but this seems extortionate. Is it? I will note that one of the estimators showed up to the job in a Tesla…

The other elements are that 1) this won’t reduce fossil fuel use since gas accounts for about 60% of the generation in our region and 2) electricity prices are high here so our heating costs will likely go up. And 3) residential gas customers get service before generators, so in a bad winter those on gas have guaranteed fuel but those on electricity don’t. Oh and 4) radiant heat is more comfortable than hot air.

I want to do the right thing here but I am not sure mini splits are the way to go. I looked into air-to-water heat pumps but getting enough heat out of then may be tricky and finding installers and service may also be tricky locally.

What am I missing?