Ducted Heat Pump Cost in NZ 2026: Real Prices, and Whether Whole-Home Heating Beats Wall Units

A ducted heat pump is the most comfortable way to heat a New Zealand home, and the most expensive. Instead of one unit on the lounge wall, you get quiet, even warmth in every bedroom from a single system hidden in the ceiling or under the floor. This article covers what one really costs in 2026, how it stacks up against two or three wall units, and whether this spring is the right time to replace an ageing ducted gas system.

At a Glance

Option	Typical NZ price (supplied and installed, incl GST)
Single high-wall unit (one living area)	$2,000–$6,000
Two to three high-wall units (living area plus bedrooms)	Roughly $6,000–$14,000 combined
Ducted system, typical 3–4 bedroom home	$12,000–$20,000
Ducted system, large or complex home	$20,000–$25,000+

Most ducted quotes for an ordinary family home land between $12,000 and $20,000. Wellington's Sustain Trust puts a 100 m² three-bedroom house heating most rooms at about $15,000, with most local jobs between $12,000 and $22,000+.
Ducted wins on comfort, not on running cost. It heats more of the house, so it will usually use more power than wall units heating only the rooms you use.
Access is the big price driver. A home with a roomy ceiling space or underfloor and simple layout is cheap to duct. A low-pitched roof, a skillion ceiling or a concrete slab can push the price up fast, or rule ducted out.
Gas central heating owners have a fresh reason to look. New gas pipeline charges took effect on 1 October 2026, and gas supply is tightening. A ducted heat pump is the natural like-for-like replacement.
Don't count on a subsidy for whole-home ducted. Government heating grants are aimed at the main living area. Check your eligibility before you build a budget around one.

What You're Actually Paying For

A ducted heat pump has three parts: an outdoor unit (the same kind of box you'd see with a wall unit, just bigger), an indoor fan coil that sits in the ceiling space or under the floor, and a network of insulated ducts running to a grille in each room. A wall controller, or an app, runs the lot.

The price on a quote breaks down roughly like this:

Equipment. The outdoor and indoor units. Bigger homes need more capacity, and premium brands (Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin, Fujitsu, Panasonic and Carrier, which has recently been expanding its NZ residential range) cost more than budget lines.
Ductwork and grilles. Every extra room means another duct run and outlet. Return-air grilles add to it.
Labour. Ducted installs typically take three to five days, against a day or less for a single wall unit. That's the main reason ducted costs so much more.
Electrical work. Larger outdoor units may need a dedicated circuit, and an older switchboard may need an upgrade first.
Controls and zoning. A single-zone system heats the whole house at once. Zoning, which lets you heat the living area by day and bedrooms at night, adds motorised dampers and a better controller, and it's usually worth it.

What pushes the price up

The biggest swing factor is access. Installers need to get a fan coil and ducts into the roof space or under the floor. Ask these questions before you even get quotes:

Is there a decent ceiling cavity? A pitched roof with plenty of room is ideal. A low-pitched or skillion roof often means ducting has to go underfloor, which is more work, or doesn't go at all.
Is the house on piles or a slab? Piles give underfloor access. A concrete slab with a tight ceiling space is the hardest case.
How many rooms, and how spread out? A compact three-bedroom house is far cheaper to duct than a sprawling single-level home with long runs.
Is it a two-storey? Getting heat to both levels can mean two systems, or a more complicated duct design.

Some Auckland-area installer figures start lower, around $8,000 for a simple standard home, while Canterbury and Wellington estimates for a typical 3–4 bedroom home sit in the $12,000–$20,000 band. Treat the low end as a best case, not a budget.

Ducted vs Two or Three Wall Units

This is the real decision for most homeowners. For roughly the same money as a mid-range ducted system, you can often put a high-wall unit in the lounge and one or two more in the bedrooms or hallway.

	Ducted system	Two to three wall units
Upfront cost	Higher, typically $12,000–$20,000	Lower, typically $6,000–$14,000 combined
Comfort	Even warmth in every room, very quiet	Strong in the rooms that have a unit, cooler elsewhere
Looks	Only small ceiling or floor grilles visible	A unit on each wall, plus outdoor units
Running cost	Usually higher, because it heats more space	Usually lower, because you heat only what you use
Efficiency	Some heat is lost through duct runs	Heat delivered straight into the room
Disruption	Several days of work in the roof or underfloor	Usually one day or less per unit
Failure risk	One system: if it's down, the whole house is cold	One unit failing leaves the others running
Best for	New builds, major renovations, replacing ducted gas	Most existing homes, staged budgets

Our view: for most existing NZ homes, two or three well-sized wall units are better value. They cost less to buy, usually cost less to run, and you can install them in stages as the budget allows. Start with the living area, where you'll get the biggest comfort gain, then add bedrooms later.

Ducted earns its price in three situations:

You're building or doing a major renovation. With ceilings or floors open, ductwork is far simpler, and you avoid paying to retrofit it later.
You already have ducted gas central heating. The house was designed around ducted heat, and your household is used to it. Swapping to a wall unit in each room would feel like a downgrade.
You want whole-home comfort and can pay for it. If you work from home, have young children or older family members, or simply hate cold hallways and bathrooms, the even warmth is a genuine quality-of-life upgrade.

Running Costs: Why Ducted Usually Costs More to Run

A heat pump's running cost depends mostly on how much space you heat and for how long, not on whether the heat travels through a duct. A ducted system heating a whole three-bedroom house will almost always use more power than one lounge unit heating 40 m², simply because it's heating more house.

Two other factors make ducted slightly less efficient per unit of heat:

Duct losses. Some heat escapes through the duct walls before it reaches the rooms, especially if ducts run through a cold, uninsulated roof space. Good insulation on the ducts and a tidy layout keep this small.
Heating rooms nobody is using. Without zoning, a ducted system warms the spare room and the laundry along with everything else.

For a sense of scale, our heat pump running cost breakdown works on an average rate of 33c/kWh and an efficiency (COP) of around 3.5. On those assumptions, every kilowatt-hour of electricity delivers about 3.5 kWh of heat. A whole-home system running six hours a day through winter could easily use two to three times the power of a single lounge unit. Even so, it will cost far less to run than resistive electric heaters warming the same rooms.

Zoning is the single best way to cut a ducted system's running costs. Heat the living area in the evening and bedrooms overnight, and you'll claw back a lot of the gap with wall units.

If you're curious what your own household might spend, estimate your savings based on your home and power plan.

Replacing Ducted Gas Central Heating

If you have a ducted gas heater, often a Rinnai or similar unit installed in the 1990s or 2000s, this spring is a sensible time to think about what comes next.

Why gas owners are looking now

From 1 October 2026, the Commerce Commission's new rules for gas pipeline charges took effect. The Commission expects most households to see gas bills rise 1–3% (excluding inflation), up to about $5 a month on average in the first year. Households on Vector's Auckland network may pay about $5 a month more in each of the next three years, and Vector's standard gas distribution prices rose by a weighted average of 12.7%. Pipeline charges are about a third of a typical gas bill. Retail gas prices are set by retailers on top of that, and the wider backdrop is a tightening domestic gas supply.

None of that makes your gas heater stop working tomorrow. But it does mean the cost of staying on gas is heading one way. And unlike a gas heater, a ducted heat pump also cools in summer.

Can you reuse the existing ducts?

Sometimes, but don't assume it. Gas furnaces push out very hot air at relatively low volumes. A heat pump delivers warm rather than hot air, so it needs to move more of it to deliver the same heat. Older gas ductwork can be undersized, poorly insulated or in rough shape after 20-plus years in a roof space.

A good installer will inspect the existing ducts and tell you whether they can be reused, partly reused, or need replacing. Reusing sound ducts can take a meaningful chunk off the quote. Replacing them puts you back in the full $12,000–$20,000 range.

Replace now or wait for the gas unit to fail?

The same logic from our gas hot water switch guide applies to heating. Two questions matter most:

How old is your gas heater? If it's 15 or more years old, it's worth getting quotes now, while you can plan the job calmly. If it fails on a cold night in July, you'll be choosing in a hurry with installers booked out.
Will this let you disconnect gas entirely? If heating is your last gas appliance, or you're also replacing gas hot water, switching lets you drop the daily gas connection charge too. That's where the biggest saving sits.

Funding and Subsidies

Government heating support through Warmer Kiwi Homes is aimed at eligible owner-occupied homes and focuses on an efficient heater for the main living area. It isn't designed to fund whole-home ducted systems. The rules, grant levels and eligible areas have changed several times, so check the current position rather than relying on a figure you've read elsewhere. Our Warmer Kiwi Homes explainer covers the background, and you can check your eligibility in a couple of minutes.

For most ducted projects, the realistic funding routes are:

Green home loans or top-ups. Several NZ banks offer discounted rates for energy upgrades. Our bank-by-bank comparison shows how they compare.
Bundling with a renovation. If you're already borrowing for a renovation, adding ducting while the house is open is cheaper than doing it later.
Staging. If ducted is out of reach, a lounge wall unit now and bedroom units later gets you most of the comfort for a fraction of the upfront cost.

How to Get an Accurate Quote

Ducted pricing varies more than almost any other heat pump job, so a good quote is worth the effort.

Get at least three quotes, and insist on an on-site visit. Anyone quoting a ducted system without looking in your roof space or underfloor is guessing.
Ask for a heat load calculation. The system should be sized to your home's insulation, glazing and climate, not just its floor area.
Ask how many zones are included, and what adding one would cost.
Check the duct insulation rating and where the ducts will run.
Ask what happens to the old gas unit if you're replacing one: removal, gas capping by a registered gas fitter, and disposal should all be on the quote.
Confirm the warranty terms, including any servicing requirements. Ducted systems need regular filter cleans and a periodic professional service. Our heat pump servicing guide covers what that costs.

Get your insulation sorted first. A ducted heat pump in a poorly insulated house works harder, costs more to run and may need to be bigger. Our complete heat pump guide explains how sizing and insulation fit together.

The Bottom Line

A ducted heat pump is a premium product with a premium price: plan on $12,000–$20,000 for a typical family home, and more if access is tricky. For most existing homes, two or three well-placed wall units give better value and lower running costs. But if you're building, renovating, or replacing ageing ducted gas central heating, especially with gas network charges now rising, ducted is the right like-for-like upgrade.

Not sure which way to go? Take our free assessment to see which upgrades make sense for your home, or find heat pump installers in your area and get quotes for both options side by side.