WHAT IT COSTS

One price, and where it goes

C$7,000 installed is a target price for developers, not a quote. Here's what's in it, what we compare it against, and where to check the outside numbers yourself.

TARGETFirstLaw isn't in production yet. These are the costs we're designing to, from our own cost model. They aren't a bid, and they'll change as we go from prototype to volume. If you're pricing a real project, talk to us and we'll put the current figure in writing.
THE USUAL WAY

A ductless split for heating and cooling, plus an electric tank for hot water. Two machines, each with its own circuit and space in the apartment.

Heat pump hardware
12,000 BTU ductless split, mid-tier brand
$2,500
Water heater hardware
40 to 60 gallon standard electric tank
$1,000
Electrical work
Two separate 240V circuits, labour, breakers and cabling
$1,500
Mechanical work
Line set, vacuum, charge, plumbing and strapping
$3,500
Total installed$8,500
FIRSTLAW

One machine doing all three jobs, on one refrigerant line and one circuit.

Integrated hardware
Heat pump, thermal battery and controls, target wholesale price
$4,500
Install
Single 240V circuit, single footprint, roughly half the labour hours
$2,500
Total installed$7,000
Difference per unit
$1,500 17.6% lower

Across a 100-unit building, that's about C$150,000 before any energy is saved. Operating savings come on top, and the calculator estimates them.

Where the difference comes from

One circuit instead of two

A dedicated 240V circuit costs about C$650 in Canada, anywhere from C$250 to C$900 depending on the run and the panel. Dropping the second one takes that off the job.

Less work to do

Hanging one machine on one refrigerant line is less work than hanging a ductless split and then placing, plumbing and wiring a tank. Most of the saving is labour hours, because there's less to install. Nobody's rate goes down.

No tank to buy or place

There's no tank, so its stand, its plumbing and the floor it stood on all come out of the job. That's also where the reclaimed floor area comes from.

What's in it for the installer

Contractors buy the hardware at wholesale. The gap between that and the installed price is their labour and margin, and we've kept it wide because the job is smaller than the one it replaces.

That margin is why a contractor would take on an unfamiliar product. We'd rather keep it wide and get specified than trim it and get passed over.

$4,500
Wholesale hardware price to the contractor
$2,500
Left for labour and margin on a C$7,000 job
10 to 15%
Discount on developer orders of 50 units or more

How it compares with what else you can buy

Quilt publishes an installed price, which is rare in this industry, so it's a useful comparison: 6,499 USD per zone, about C$8,950 at late August 2026 rates. That covers heating and cooling only. Hot water still needs its own machine, circuit and space.

We've left out Jetson, the other name people bring up. Theirs is a whole-home ducted system at 15,000 to 19,000 USD, so setting it beside a per-apartment price would flatter us without telling you anything.

What would make these numbers wrong

The assumptions behind the model, including the ones that work against us.

  • Labour rates. Union and non-union blended, at C$85 to C$120 an hour. Below that, the baseline drops and our advantage shrinks, because most of what we remove is labour.
  • Scheduling contingency. The baseline adds 15% for the scheduling risk of fitting two systems into one apartment. If your general contractor already schedules tightly, that padding shrinks, and so does the gap.
  • Floor area is excluded. Each unit frees about 15 square feet, worth around C$10,000 in a dense urban build. We haven't counted it, because it depends entirely on your market.
  • The hardware price is a target. C$4,500 wholesale covers the compressor, thermal battery and control board at volume. It's the number we'd most expect to be challenged, and the one that depends most on reaching production scale.
  • The baseline is urban Canadian. It uses 2025 subcontractor pricing for dense multi-family buildings in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Elsewhere, both columns change.

Sources

The outside prices we checked our baseline against in August 2026. Check them yourself.

  1. Single-zone ductless installed cost in Canada, C$4,500 to C$7,500 Boldr
  2. Toronto single-zone installed cost, C$3,000 to C$4,500 basic and C$5,000 to C$9,000 cold-climate MegaCity HVAC
  3. 40 gallon electric tank, C$1,000 to C$1,500 installed Lord Mechanical
  4. Electric tank replacement in Ontario, C$1,500 to C$2,200 installed Go Lime
  5. Dedicated circuit, C$250 to C$900 with about C$650 typical HomeGuide
  6. Canadian electrician hourly rates HomeStars
  7. Quilt at 6,499 USD per zone installed, air to air only TechCrunch
  8. USD to CAD at 1.378, 21 August 2026 Trading Economics
  9. Salt-based phase-change storage at four times the energy density of water Sunamp
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