A new gas furnace plus A/C with the required high efficiency ducts will also cost about the same in the Bay Area. The 20k heat pump makes sense if you have to replace your entire HVAC system anyway due to age.
Cheaper options that work in parallel with your existing furnace are ductless mini splits with one or two indoor units serving main living areas.
A suit from Bijan also costs 25k. Am I supposed to extrapolate that all suits costs 25k? You are doing exactly this especially with the use of "can" which automatically implies an upper bar.
No but it’s to say that for many in the us installing a heat pump heater is a major expense where the roi will take many years to break even from savings
A huge number of US households install or replace a central air conditioning system each year.
The difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner is small (flow reversing valves, defroster on external compressor fins, some different control software).
Those air conditioners should be replaced with heat pumps instead. At the very least, it provides summer cooling and a secondary backup heat source. Think of it as plug-in hybrid heating.
The problem is that there are relatively few contractors offering these, and they are mostly targeting the luxury market. Similarly, manufacturers have positioned heat pumps as high-end devices, rather than reversible A/Cs.
It is not even a skills gap issue. For the same reasons described above, if a technician can install an A/C they can install a heat pump. We need more technicians and more HVAC contractors willing to install them, which requires more consumers to demand them.
