Covington and Maple Valley sit about ten minutes apart on the Kent-Kangley corridor, share a school district, and share a utility. They do not share a price.
That surprises people. Two homeowners with similar houses, one on each side of the line, get quotes a few thousand dollars apart and assume somebody is padding. Usually nobody is. Here are the real 2026 numbers for both cities, what actually moves them, and where the rebate money lands.
The numbers, both cities
All prices are installed cost — equipment, labor, materials, permit. Covington prices as a standard market. Maple Valley prices as an affluent market across our whole service area, alongside Seattle, Black Diamond, and Normandy Park.
| System | Covington | Maple Valley |
|---|---|---|
| SystemDucted heat pump | Covington$12,000 - $18,000 | Maple Valley$13,800 - $21,600 |
| SystemDuctless mini-split | Covington$8,000 - $14,000 | Maple Valley$9,200 - $16,800 |
| SystemHeat pump replacement | Covington$10,000 - $16,000 | Maple Valley$11,500 - $19,200 |
| SystemHeat pump repair | Covington$150 - $1,500 | Maple Valley$175 - $1,800 |
| SystemGas furnace replacement | Covington$4,000 - $8,000 | Maple Valley$5,000 - $10,000 |
| SystemDuctwork | Covington$3,000 - $8,000 | Maple Valley$4,000 - $10,000 |
Most homes land in the middle of their range, not at the top. The top of a range is a big house, a premium variable-speed tier, and real duct or electrical work in the same visit.
Why the two cities price differently
It isn't zip code snobbery. It's square footage and scope.
Maple Valley's growth came in waves of larger two-story homes on bigger lots, plus lakefront and semi-rural properties east toward Ravensdale and Hobart. Bigger conditioned volume means more tonnage, more duct capacity, longer line sets, and more frequent second-zone conversations. Covington's build-out leaned toward tighter tract subdivisions and ramblers — smaller loads, shorter runs, more repeatable installs.
When the house is the same, the price is the same. When the house is 900 square feet bigger with a bonus room over the garage, it isn't.
The 21°F number nobody mentions in a sales pitch
Washington's energy code lists a winter outdoor design temperature for every part of the state. Covington and Maple Valley are at 21°F, along with Kent and Renton.
That's three degrees colder than Federal Way, Seattle, or Bellevue, and eight degrees colder than Tacoma. It is not cold enough to scare anyone away from a heat pump — Puget Sound is genuinely one of the best heat pump climates in the country, and modern equipment covers 21°F comfortably. But it does mean a load calculation run on assumptions from the water side of King County can size a system a half-ton light. On the plateau, that shows up as a system that runs hard and leans on backup strips during a January cold snap, and an electric bill that makes the homeowner think the equipment is broken.
Every ducted heat pump estimate we write includes a real Manual J load calculation at no extra cost. Not a square-footage rule of thumb.
What actually drives your number
Ductwork condition
This is the single biggest swing factor in this part of King County. A furnace moves less air than a heat pump does, so ducts sized for a 1997 gas furnace are sometimes fine, sometimes need a bigger return, and occasionally need real surgery — especially where flex duct has been crushed against a crawlspace joist for twenty years. We inspect before we price it rather than discovering it on install day.
Electrical service
Most homes here have a 100-amp panel or larger, and most can take a heat pump's 30-40 amp 240V circuit with no upgrade at all. Older acreage properties east of town are where we more often find a full panel or a service that needs attention. We're an HVAC contractor — we coordinate electrical scope with a licensed electrician rather than performing panel work ourselves.
Equipment tier
Good, Better, Best. Single-stage on the value end, two-stage in the middle, variable-speed inverter at the top. The premium tiers buy quieter operation, better humidity control, and steadier temperatures — real benefits, not imaginary ones, but they are a comfort purchase more than a payback purchase. We install Day & Night as our primary ducted line (Elite Dealer), plus Carrier and American Standard; Mitsubishi, Daikin, and Hitachi on the ductless side.
What you're replacing
Swapping an existing heat pump is the cheapest path. Converting a gas furnace means adding an outdoor unit, a line set, a new circuit, and often a new coil. Converting electric baseboard or a wall heater means there may be no ductwork at all — which pushes the job toward ductless.
Rebates: the good news for this corridor
Rebate eligibility follows the meter, not the county line. Plenty of cities we serve are on Tacoma Power, Seattle City Light, or a member-owned co-op, and PSE rebates simply don't apply there.
Covington and Maple Valley are clean PSE territory for both electricity and natural gas. That means qualifying installations here can access up to $4,400 toward a qualifying heat pump when it replaces an existing electric or fossil-fuel system — the exact amount depends on what you're replacing and what you install. PSE pays $1,500 for an electric-resistance conversion and $4,000 or more for income-qualified gas conversions.
Two things to be straight about:
- The federal 25C tax credit ended December 31, 2025. No 2026 installation qualifies. Anyone still quoting it is quoting a dead program.
- From April 2, 2026, PSE rebates require a PSE-certified installer. Use a contractor who isn't certified and the rebate is forfeited. Varsity is a PSE Certified Contractor and files the paperwork as part of the job.
Programs change. We confirm your current eligibility rather than promising a number we can't control. The full breakdown lives in our PSE rebate guide.
When ductless is the smarter buy here
Not every plateau home should get a ducted system.
- Baseboard or wall-heater homes. Retrofitting ducts into a finished house is invasive and expensive. A ductless mini-split skips it entirely, and converting electric resistance heat is the classic PSE $1,500 rebate case.
- Bonus rooms over the garage. Very common in Maple Valley two-stories, and very often the hottest room in August and the coldest in January. A single dedicated zone fixes it for good.
- ADUs, shops, and detached offices. Lots of acreage properties out here have one.
- Homes with no gas service. Hobart and Ravensdale have no natural gas at all, and parts of the rural fringe run propane. Full electrification usually pencils better than another propane delivery contract.
Repair or replace?
If your existing heat pump is under 10 years old and the fix costs less than half a new system, repair it. We'll say so, and we service all major brands, not just the ones we install. At 12 to 15 years, especially with an aging refrigerant charge and a four-figure quote in hand, replacement usually wins — a new system at $10,000 to $16,000 standard comes with our 10-year parts and labor warranty, which a repair on a tired unit does not. Our heat pump repair page covers the diagnostic process.
How the visit works
An estimate visit is a sales appointment — we're not going to pretend otherwise. What it isn't: a door knocker, a call center, or a manufactured deadline. A technician measures the house, runs the load calculation, inspects the ducts and the panel, and leaves you a written proposal with Good, Better, and Best tiers and the rebate math spelled out. Most installs are finished in one day.
Covington homeowners can start at our Covington heat pump page; Maple Valley homeowners at the Maple Valley page. Or call (253) 785-4622, Monday through Friday, 8 to 6. We're based in Federal Way, twenty minutes down the hill, and we answer the phone after the check clears.