Heat pump installation during renovation - any gotchas?

Don't assume your contractor knows what they're doing with the thermostat placement or zoning - I've seen too many installs where the sensor ends up in a weird spot that makes the whole system fight itself. Get specific about where it's going before work starts, especially if you're doing a multi-zone setup or if your renovation is changing how air moves through the house.

The big thing people miss is that heat pumps absolutely hate being undersized for your actual heating needs, not just cooling. A lot of folks size based on summer AC load and then wonder why they're cranking the backup heat all winter. If you're up north or in a climate with real winters, push back on the installer if they're not accounting for that properly - it'll haunt you January through March.

One other angle: if you're ripping out old walls, the ducting and refrigerant lines need their permanent routes planned before drywall goes up. Once you've sheeted everything, running new lines or fixing a routing issue gets expensive and messy fast. Same goes for outdoor unit placement - make sure it's somewhere you can actually service it later without moving a deck or landscaping.

the one thing people miss is sizing the unit for your actual layout, not just square footage - if you're doing an open concept renovation, a single head might struggle to reach back bedrooms evenly, and you end up with hot spots or cold zones that waste energy. get the installer to do a load calculation specific to your insulation upgrades and window changes, because that renovation work changes what the heat pump actually needs to do. way cheaper to spec it right the first time than run it inefficiently for years or retrofit additional heads later.