A heat pump is a big spend, and the installer matters as much as the unit. Fitted well, it gives you a warm, dry home and lower power bills. Fitted badly, you get cold rooms, noise and callbacks. There are picks for 13 places: Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Lower Hutt, Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Tauranga, Upper Hutt, Wellington and Whangārei.
Each pick explains what the business does, where it is based and why it made the list. Smaller places carry shorter lists, because fewer installers there make the grade, which tells you something about the local market. Treat any list as a starting point. Get two or three written quotes, compare what each covers, and check the electrician is registered with the Electrical Workers Registration Board.
What it takes to make a town's list
Two things get a business onto a list. The first is a Google rating of 4.5 stars or better from at least 10 reviews. The second is a website that shows real heat pump work, not general electrical or plumbing jobs with a heat pump mention tacked on. Ratings alone prove little, since a busy sparky can collect plenty of happy customers without touching a heat pump. The website is where the work itself shows up.
Each pick is written after reading that business's website and its reviews, and covers what the business does, where it is based and why it made the list. Each town's picks come with local detail too: the climate, the housing stock, what to ask an installer in that town and the questions locals raise. Lists are reviewed and updated, and ratings come from Google, so they shift over time. A good rating today is a fair sign, not a permanent badge. Where a town has fewer than 10 picks, it comes down to size, since smaller places have fewer installers who meet the standard.
