The system
Start from a common residential layout, then replace head count and BTU with the equipment you actually quoted.
The run and the service
Head type and story multiply indoor labor. Extra line-set hours also climb with height. Electrical extras are a fixed adder — they do not get cheaper on a single-zone job.
Your costs
Payroll burden covers employer taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, and paid time off. Matching a cheaper per-head quote after leaving it out is how a sold job becomes a loss.
Hand the customer a proposal
The price above is for you. This is the page you print or save as a PDF and give to the customer — your details, their details, the scope, the deposit split, and a line for them to sign. Your business details are saved on this device so you only type them once; the customer’s details are never saved.
Everything on the printed page is text you typed or a number this calculator worked out. It contains no warranty, lien, or cancellation wording — those depend on your jurisdiction and your contract, and this tool is not the place to invent them.
Your bid
- System size
- Crew hours
- Loaded labor
- Equipment
- Line-set, electrical, condensate
- Permit and travel
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit
- Price per head
- Price per kBTU
- Effective hourly rate
- Walk-away price
- Walk-away per head
A bid link carries your own rates — wage, burden, overhead, and target margin — so the page reopens exactly as you left it. Send it to yourself, your crew, or a second estimator. The customer should get the price, not the link.
Where the cost goes
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. Head-type factors, story factors, and extras are common ballpark starting points, not an industry standard, a benchmark, or a guarantee. Time your own crews and replace them.
Common questions
Why is equipment nearly two-thirds of the cost?
Because a mini-split is an equipment job with an install attached. On the defaults — one 12,000 BTU head — the outdoor unit is $1,400 and the indoor head $550, which is 64.1% of direct cost against 14.4% for the eight hours of labor. Your margin is far more sensitive to what you pay for equipment than to how fast the crew works, which is the opposite of most trades on this site.
Why is the line set $0 when the job clearly needs one?
Because the first 15 feet per head is in the base equipment price, and the default run is exactly 15 feet. Only footage past the allowance bills, and it bills in labor as well as material — roughly an hour per extra ten feet, since a longer run means more penetration, hanging, and evacuation time. A second-floor head on a long run is where this number moves.
Is $325 per thousand BTU a rate I can quote from?
Not across sizes. It is $3,902.33 divided by 12 kBTU, and it drops as capacity rises because the permit, travel, commissioning hour, and trip are the same for a bigger head. A 24,000 BTU single-head system does not cost twice as much. The figure is for checking one quote against another at the same capacity, not for scaling.
Why doesn’t a 22% target margin mean adding 22% to cost?
Because margin is a fraction of the price. The default system costs $3,043.82, and holding 22% of the price as profit is $3,043.82 ÷ 0.78 = $3,902.33. Adding 22% to cost gives $3,713.46, an 18% margin — and on an equipment-heavy job like this one, where the cost base is large, that gap is $189 on a single head and scales with every head you add.