Best Heat Pump Installation in Texas

Installing a heat pump in Texas is regulated refrigeration work — a heat pump just runs the refrigerant cycle in reverse to heat — so it needs the same TDLR Air Conditioning & Refrigeration license (Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1302; Class A for any size, Class B for systems ≤25 tons cooling or ≤1.5M BTU/hr heating) plus EPA Section 608 certification to braze, evacuate, and charge the line set. There is no separate “heat pump” license — verify the TDLR number and 608 card at tdlr.texas.gov, and expect a mechanical permit and a licensed electrician for the air handler's electric-resistance backup-heat circuit.

Texas heat-pump rebates key off both the cooling number (SEER2) and the heating number (HSPF2), and they're the only real offset in 2026 now that the federal 25C heat-pump credit ended December 31, 2025: Oncor's Take A Load Off Texas pays up to $600 per heat pump on SEER2 15.2+/HSPF2 8.1+ (smart thermostat required, another $150 at SEER2 17+) as an invoice discount through an Oncor-Qualified contractor; CenterPoint's Standard Offer Program pays up to $500 per unit in deregulated Houston; CPS Energy in San Antonio pays $90–$310 per ton (file within 30 days of install); and Austin Energy's Power Saver whole-home rebate runs about $3,000 for SEER2 16+/HSPF2 8.5+ systems.

Because Texas is cooling-dominant, a heat pump sized for the summer AC load almost always covers the mild winter on its own — so the standard Texas install is a straight air-source heat pump with a modest electric-resistance backup strip for rare hard freezes, not a gas furnace. The February 2021 freeze is the design memory: size the aux heat for a cold snap, but don't oversize the heat pump for heating you'll rarely use, which only makes it short-cycle and under-dehumidify all summer.