Real numbers for furnace and AC installs, heat pumps, mini-splits, and the repairs that keep them running — across Kansas City, Overland Park, Olathe, Lee’s Summit, Liberty and the rest of the metro. Schedule online and we will put an exact price on your project, free.
Typical installed cost of a full air conditioner and furnace replacement for a Kansas City home.
Kansas City asks a lot of a comfort system. Summers run hot and humid, winters drop well below freezing, and the shoulder seasons can swing thirty degrees in a single day. That is why most homes here run a matched pair — a gas furnace for the cold months and a central air conditioner for the humid ones — and why correct sizing and a clean installation matter more here than they do in milder markets.
For a typical 2,100 square foot metro home, a full system replacement usually lands between $5,000 and $12,500 installed. Replacing only the furnace or only the air conditioner costs less. Adding ductwork, relocating equipment, or stepping up to variable-speed, high-efficiency equipment moves the number higher.
A replacement is not just new equipment dropped into an old setup. It is a system: the furnace or air handler, the outdoor unit, the coil, the line set, the plenum and duct connections, the electrical, the thermostat, and the permit. When a quote comes in unusually low, one of those pieces is usually missing — and it is normally the part that decides whether the system lasts ten years or twenty.
These are installed price ranges for the Kansas City metro — equipment, labor, materials and permit included. Where your project lands inside a range depends on the size of your home, the efficiency tier you choose, and what the installation itself requires.
Two houses on the same street can get very different quotes for what sounds like the same job. Five variables account for almost all of the difference.
Capacity is measured in tons for cooling and BTUs for heating, and it is set by a load calculation: square footage, insulation, window area, ceiling height and orientation. Most KC homes land between 3.5 and 4.5 tons. Oversizing is the most common mistake we find, and it shows up as short cycling, humidity that never drops, and a system that wears out early.
SEER2 on the cooling side and AFUE on the heating side. Standard-efficiency equipment costs the least up front. High-efficiency equipment costs more to install and less to run, and it is usually what qualifies for utility rebates. The right tier depends on how long you plan to stay in the house.
Ductwork is the part nobody quotes and everybody feels. Undersized returns, leaky joints and crushed flex runs hold back even the best equipment. Sealing and minor repairs may add a few hundred dollars; a redesign can add several thousand. We tell you which one you are looking at before you sign anything.
Single-stage equipment runs at full blast or not at all. Two-stage and variable-speed systems modulate, which means quieter operation, steadier temperatures and much better humidity control through a KC August. That capability is real, and it costs more. We quote the tiers side by side so the tradeoff is yours.
A straight swap in an open basement is the cheapest install there is. An attic air handler, a tight crawlspace, a long line set, an electrical panel that needs work, a gas line that needs resizing, or equipment that has to be relocated all add labor hours. So does removing and disposing of the old system.
Picking equipment is not only about the sticker. Each type carries a different up-front cost, a different operating cost, and a different fit for a Kansas City home. Here is how the four common paths compare.
A gas furnace is still the workhorse of heating in Kansas City, and for good reason — natural gas is widely available here and it moves a lot of heat on the coldest nights. Installed, a replacement typically runs $3,800 to $10,000.
The spread is almost entirely efficiency and staging. An 80% AFUE single-stage furnace is the budget option and it works, but roughly a fifth of the fuel goes up the flue. A 96% or higher condensing furnace with a variable-speed blower costs more to install — it also needs different venting — and it runs longer at lower speeds, which is what actually makes a house feel evenly heated instead of hot-then-cold. We also look at the flue, the gas line and the combustion air supply on every quote, because a furnace that cannot breathe correctly is a safety issue, not just an efficiency one.
Central AC replacement in the metro generally lands between $3,300 and $7,900 installed, with most homes needing 3.5 to 4.5 tons.
SEER2 is the biggest lever. A standard-efficiency unit costs the least and cools fine; higher SEER2 equipment costs more up front, drops the summer bill, and is what qualifies for Evergy rebates. In a humid market like ours, the quieter argument for stepping up a tier is dehumidification — a two-stage or variable-speed system runs longer at lower capacity and pulls far more moisture out of the air than a single-stage unit that blasts and shuts off. That is the difference between 74 degrees that feels cool and 74 degrees that feels clammy.
An air-source heat pump runs $4,500 to $8,800 installed. It both heats and cools, moving heat rather than burning fuel, which makes it very efficient through the mild half of the year.
In Kansas City the smart configuration is usually dual fuel: a heat pump paired with a gas furnace. The heat pump handles fall, spring and mild winter days at low operating cost, and the furnace takes over when temperatures drop into the range where a heat pump loses efficiency. It costs more than a straight AC-and-furnace pair, but it can meaningfully lower what you spend across a full year, and heat pumps carry the largest Evergy rebates of any equipment on the list.
A single-zone mini-split installs for $2,500 to $6,000; a multi-zone system runs $4,500 to $15,000 depending on how many indoor heads it feeds.
Mini-splits solve a specific problem well: the room the main system never gets right. Bonus rooms over garages, finished basements, sunrooms, additions, converted attics, home offices and detached garages are all classic candidates. Because they need no ductwork, they are also the cheapest way to add real heating and cooling to a space that has none.
The lowest-cost route to a reliable system is a standard-efficiency furnace and air conditioner installed as a matched pair. Affordable is not the same as cheap: a properly sized, properly installed standard-efficiency system will outlast a premium system that was oversized and rushed. What you give up at this tier is operating cost, humidity control and quiet — not reliability.
At the top of the range are variable-speed, high-efficiency and dual-fuel systems, often paired with upgraded filtration, a whole-home humidifier and a smart thermostat. They cost the most to install and deliver the most: the lowest bills, the steadiest temperatures, the best humidity control and the quietest operation. For a homeowner staying put for ten or more years, the math usually works. For someone planning to sell in two, it usually does not — and we will tell you so.
Season affects your wait more than it affects your price. The first ninety-degree stretch in June and the first hard freeze in December are when every HVAC company in the metro gets busy at once, and that is also when systems fail — equipment tends to break the day it is asked to work hardest.
If you have a choice, spring and fall are the easiest times to replace a system. Schedules are open, you are not making a decision under pressure in a ninety-degree house, and there is time to compare options properly. If you do not have a choice, we run emergency service and we will get you covered.
Most repairs are diagnosed and completed in a single visit. Same-day or next-day service across the KC metro, with emergency availability when the heat or the cooling is out entirely.
A straight furnace and AC changeout is normally a one-day install. We can often be in the next day once the equipment is confirmed.
Ductwork, equipment relocation, electrical upgrades or multi-zone mini-split systems typically take two to three days, and peak season can extend that.
Luna diagnostic fee. A technician finds the actual cause, explains it in plain language, and gives you the repair price before any work begins.
Most repairs in the metro land between $150 and $800. A failed capacitor on a Saturday afternoon and a cracked heat exchanger are both “my system is not working,” but they are not remotely the same bill, so the honest answer to what a repair costs starts with a diagnosis.
We inspect before we quote. That means checking the equipment, the electrical connections, refrigerant charge, airflow and duct static, and the thermostat — not just the part that announced itself. A blower motor that burns out because a filter has been choked for two years is going to burn out again if nobody mentions the filter. Fixing the cause is cheaper than fixing the symptom twice.
Waiting is what turns a small repair into a large one. A refrigerant leak left alone runs the compressor low on charge until the compressor fails. A weak igniter left alone becomes a no-heat call at eleven at night in January. If something sounds, smells or feels wrong, the cheapest moment to deal with it is now.
A capacitor is a part-and-labor call measured in minutes. A compressor or a heat exchanger is a major component that takes hours and carries real material cost. Most of the difference between a $200 repair and a $2,000 repair is decided the moment the technician identifies the failure.
Manufacturer parts warranties commonly run five to ten years, and longer on registered equipment. If your compressor, coil or heat exchanger is still covered, you pay for labor and refrigerant instead of the part — frequently the difference between a repair that makes sense and one that does not.
An attic air handler in July, a crawlspace furnace, or a unit boxed in by a finished basement all add labor time. Older systems add another wrinkle: discontinued parts take longer to source, and some are no longer made at all.
Scheduled daytime service is the standard rate. Nights, weekends and holidays carry a premium across the industry. If the situation can safely wait until morning we will say so — and if it cannot, we will come.
Repairing a leak and recharging the system runs $200 to $1,500, and the spread comes down to where the leak is. A loose fitting or a leaking valve core is a short job. A pinhole in an evaporator coil or a failed line set buried in a wall is a different project entirely, and on older equipment it can cost more than the system is worth.
Here is the part that matters: an air conditioner does not consume refrigerant. If it is low, it is leaking. Topping off a leaking system without finding the leak means paying for refrigerant twice and running the compressor undercharged in the meantime, which is how a $400 repair turns into a $2,500 one. We locate the leak, tell you what it costs to fix properly, and give you an honest read on whether that fix is worth making on your system.
A total loss of heating or cooling is the call we treat with the most urgency, because Kansas City weather does not negotiate. A hundred-degree stretch in July is dangerous for older adults, small children and pets, and a subzero night in January puts your pipes at risk.
Sometimes the cause is small — a tripped breaker, a clogged condensate switch, a failed igniter, a thermostat that lost power. Sometimes it is a failed compressor or a cracked heat exchanger. Either way, we diagnose it, we tell you what the repair costs and what a replacement costs, and if the honest answer is that repairing the system is throwing good money after bad, we will say that too.
A repair on a seven-year-old system is almost always the right call. A repair on a seventeen-year-old system usually is not. In between, three rules of thumb do most of the work.
Multiply the age of the system by the repair quote. Over $5,000, lean toward replacement; under it, lean toward repair. A twelve-year-old air conditioner with a $450 repair comes to $5,400 — a signal to start pricing a replacement.
If the repair costs half or more of what a new system would cost installed, replace it. This one carries the most weight on equipment past ten years, where the next failure is rarely far behind.
Most systems run twelve to eighteen years in this climate. Under seven, repair. Past fifteen, replacement usually wins even when the math is close, because you are buying reliability rather than another season.
Repeat repairs in a single season. Energy bills climbing while nothing else changed. Rooms that never get comfortable no matter what the thermostat says. A system that uses R-22, which is no longer produced and expensive to recharge. Rust, corrosion or a cracked heat exchanger. Any one of these on its own is worth a conversation; two or three together and a replacement is nearly always the cheaper decision over the next five years.
Our job on that visit is to give you the numbers for both paths and let you choose. We are not going to condemn a system that has good life left in it, and we are not going to sell you a fourth repair on a system that should have been replaced last year.
The sticker on a new system is rarely what a homeowner actually pays out of pocket in month one. Four things change that number.
Approved financing on new systems starts around $99 a month, with 0% interest options available on qualifying installs. Applying is a soft credit inquiry, so checking what you qualify for does not affect your score.
Evergy pays rebates on qualifying high-efficiency equipment — currently up to $600 on central air conditioners, up to $1,000 on air-source heat pumps, and rebates on mini-splits and duct sealing. Amounts and eligibility vary by tier and service territory, and we handle the paperwork.
Instead of pricing every component separately, our Luna Series packages bundle the system, the thermostat, air quality accessories and the warranty into one number, from Economy through Diamond. It is the simplest way to compare good, better and best.
From $19 a month, the plan covers seasonal tune-ups on both systems plus discounts on repairs. Maintained equipment fails less and lasts longer, which is the cheapest money in HVAC.
Ranges are useful. A real quote is better. Schedule online and a Luna technician will size your system correctly, look at your ductwork and electrical, walk you through your options side by side, and put a firm price in writing. Free, and no pressure.
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