Laminar Spring 2025 Campaign

40 installations. Prices steady. Research published for the world to see.

Everyone, welcome to Laminar Collective’s Spring 2025 campaign.

This season, we’re aiming for a smaller bulk deal, with a capacity of about 40 installations. This is partly due to the refrigerant change (we think you should wait, if you can!), and also because we want to laser focus on quality research.

As everything else gets more expensive, we’re proud to say that the negotiated pricing remains the same. Let’s dive in.

How Do I Sign Up?

Click the sign up button on Laminar Collective’s website. It looks like this:

Fill out the form. If you’re installing soon, you’ll receive an email with further instructions. You need to do this, or else you won’t get the pricing.

Negotiation Summary

Traditionally, we negotiate prices and the contractors do everything else. But it’s difficult to do research on equipment pricing & cost breakdowns this way.

So this spring, we’re doing something different. We’re going to run this deal as if we were an academic hospital. Ace Energy Services¹ & Skywalker HVAC² will help us, and you can read about their research & quality bona-fides in the footnotes.

The Prices

We are holding prices steady, at around a 15% discount to market³.

The main difference is that extensive ductwork modification is priced at custom, and that we’re offering free ductwork performance testing for the first ~25 households that claim it.

The point is this: if you have existing ductwork, we want it to be done right.

Timeline

This deal kicks off 3/1, and lasts until installation capacity up to 6/15 is booked out. Prices spike in summer. We’ll update this page if we’re booked out.

Geography

North Shore, we missed you. We’ll have a bit more of a North Shore + Boston Metro focus, but we should be able to quote in the general vicinity of this map.

If you’re in this map, we can probably at least give you a quote.

Rebates

$3,000/ton for whole-home, $10k limit unless you’re moderate income or lower. We’re keeping an eye on the latest DPU order and its impact on rebates.

Equipment

We will be installing cold-climate Daikin & Mitsubishi R-410a heat pumps. The refrigerant cutover is expected to take place early summer⁴.

Daikin will be used for smaller or ductless installations, while Mitsubishi will mostly cover larger ducted installations. 2 reasons for this:

1. Daikin’s superior turndown ratio = better performance in small spaces

2. Mitsubishi still has the most common mixed/ducted cold-climate systems in MA, and larger spaces don’t suffer from the same oversizing issue

Mitsubishi’s high min. heating BTU lends it to oversizing issues for smaller spaces.

Both solid. But should you wait for the new refrigerant equipment this fall? I say: yes.

Install Now, or Wait?

With the R-410a → R-32/R-454b transition, we’re about to get a fresh lineup of the latest models for pretty much every single brand. Along with that, we expect a marginal performance boost.

So, our recommendation is:

• If you can wait (e.g. have an old oil tank, want to replace it), I’d wait till fall.

• If you can’t wait (e.g. I need AC!), then I’d participate in this deal.

But wait, you ask. Won’t equipment prices increase this fall?

They will. But we project that Mitsubishi’s advantage, particularly on the ductless side, will erode with the new models, which means that you can get the same/superior performance from other brands (Daikin, Midea, etc.) without paying the financial premium.

Due to the turndown factor, other brands already are on par w/Mitsubishi in small spaces.

Parting Note

P.S. I moved the sappy founder’s note to another page. But if you miss it, it’s here:

Sappy Founder's Note

1. We’ve selected Ace due to their HERS rating background, in an arrangement that allows us to subsidize a couple dozen ductwork performance tests:

Ductwork Quality & Performance Testing

2. Skywalker graciously explained a lot of the steps as they completed the titular triple decker installation in our Triple Decker research report. So they know how this works. Plus, I’d argue they’re the closest we’ve got to an artisanal contractor.

3. Yes, that’s 2024’s data. But don’t worry, we will be publishing a new 2025 benchmark soon!

4. The supply houses won’t sell R-32/R-454b equipment in large quantities until they sell out R-410a, and they are still trying to sell out R-410a.