Residents across the U.S. are signing up for collective purchasing programs that cut heat pump installation costs by thousands of dollars.
Marie Tai in Boston recently installed a ductless minisplit heat pump system through a group-buy initiative run by Laminar Collective. She paid $20,000 after an initial round of quotes that ranged from $28,000 to $40,000 and then applied an $8,500 state rebate.
The programs allow installers to buy equipment in bulk and reduce marketing expenses, passing savings of 10 to 20 percent to participants. Similar efforts organized by iChoosr and Solar United Neighbors completed installations for about 90 households in Colorado and the Washington, D.C., area by the end of last year.
This spring iChoosr reran the programs in those regions, drawing interest from more than 1,000 households. The company plans to start additional group buys this year in Houston, Dallas, Chicagoland, and northern Arizona.
Contractors say the coordinated approach provides predictable work during slower seasons and lowers per-project costs by several hundred dollars.
