Planning to install ducted heating & cooling in 2026 has turned into a whole lot more complicated than just getting a price tag. Australians are finding that costs have taken a wild swing upwards, with the difference between a basic installation and a high-end setup now easily spanning $10s of thousands of dollars.
Power prices keep on climbing, and on top of that there are labour shortages causing installation rates to go up & up. To make matters worse, the new, tougher energy efficiency standards have totally changed the way these systems get chosen and installed. What used to look like a pretty straightforward upgrade has now become a long-term financial decision, especially for families that are trying to keep their ongoing expenses as low as possible
The Cost of Ducted Heating & Cooling in Australia in 2026
Ducted heating and cooling systems are still one of Australia’s most expensive yet popular ways to keep your home at just the right temperature in 2026. What the market’s telling us right now is that you’re looking at an average system price of between $9,000 and $22,000, all depending on how big your place is, how complicated it is to get the zones right, what size system you need, and how energy efficient it is.
If you’re in a small one storey home with just a basic reverse cycle system, installation costs will typically be somewhere between $9,000 and $13,000. Larger double storey houses can easily blow past $18,000 while high end smart zoned systems in big cities like Melbourne and Sydney aren’t uncommon to go over $25,000.
And just the installation costs alone have seen a pretty significant shift since 2023. Industry figures from Australian HVAC suppliers are telling us that costs have jumped up by around 12%, all driven by labour shortages, higher copper prices, and the impact of inflation on imported parts. In places like Malvern, where there’s a big demand, prices have gone up even more. So, if you’re doing your research on something like ducted heating and cooling installation Malvern in 2026, you’re probably looking at labour charges upwards of $110 an hour, that’s compared to around $75 85 an hour just five years ago.
The size of the system still plays the biggest role in determining what the final bill comes out at. A 10kW ducted system for a medium sized place in Australia will on average set you back around $14,000 fully installed. But if your home is bigger than 250 square metres, then you’re almost certainly going to need a 14kW 18kW system, and that makes the equipment and ductwork part of the job a whole lot more expensive. And then on top of that, there’s all the extra costs associated with things like a new switchboard, some extra insulation, a reinforced roof, or a smart thermostat.
Why Energy Efficiency Matters More Than the Purchase Price?
The focus in 2026 has shifted from just how much you pay upfront when buying a home. Because electricity prices have gone up so much since 2022, it’s changed the way people make decisions about what home to buy, and now energy efficiency is a major factor in those decisions, more so than before.
According to the Australian Energy Regulator, electricity prices for people living in residential areas have gone up by around 20% since 2022 and across a number of different states. As the cost of electricity has gone up, the cost of running old, inefficient air conditioning and heating systems has become crazy expensive in the long run.
Modern ducted air con systems now use these Zoned Energy Rating Labels, known as ZERL, to measure how efficient they are in the Australian climate. Systems that have 5–6-star ratings are usually a bit more expensive to install, about AUD 2,000 to 4,000 more than standard systems, but they can save you between 25–35% in energy costs each year. If you use heating and cooling every day, that’s a saving of over AUD 900 a year.
Research done by the Australian Government as part of their energy advice programs shows us that heating and cooling account for about 40% of the energy a household uses in Australia as a whole. And in places like Victoria and Tasmania, that figure can get as high as 50% during the winter months.
As a result, high efficiency systems are becoming more and more worthwhile, even if they may seem a bit more expensive upfront. Systems with poor technology are going to be more expensive in the long run, whereas systems with variable speed inverter compressors, which are becoming more common in premium systems, can save you around 30% on energy costs compared to older systems.
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