Kinro

HVAC · Price your work

HVAC Hourly Labor Rate & Break-Even Calculator

An HVAC labor rate must recover annual labor and overhead over the hours you actually bill. Paid technician hours and customer-billable hours are not the same.

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Calculate your result

HVAC hourly service rate: interactive worksheet

01

Make it your business

Start with an example, then replace the assumptions. Results update as you type.

Examples illustrate different workloads. They are not market averages or recommended prices.

Technicians whose wages are included here. Keep owner pay separate unless the owner is included in this count.

Include a fair cost for your own labor even when you work alone.

Allow for travel, estimates, training, leave and other time that cannot be sold.

Vehicles, insurance, office, software and other costs not already in wages or burden.

Profit as a share of selling price, after all costs entered. A 25% margin is not a 25% markup.

Cost & schedule assumptions 4 inputs

These example values affect your result. Review each before relying on the worksheet.

Your employer taxes, workers' comp, benefits and paid-time allowance as a percentage of wages. Avoid double counting separate cost fields.

Scheduled hours per person. Overtime premiums must be included in your wage or burden.

Include paid nonworking weeks here, then account for nonbillable time in utilization.

Enter zero if owner compensation is already included in payroll or overhead.

Export to keep your work. Refreshing or leaving this page clears your inputs and saved comparison.

Understand the result

The method,
made clear.

Billable hours = technicians × paid hours × paid weeks × billable share. Break-even rate = annual loaded payroll, overhead and additional owner pay ÷ billable hours. Target rate = break-even rate ÷ (1 − margin).

Use realized billable utilization, not a full 40-hour billing week by default. Parts and project-specific costs need their own pricing.

How to use this tool

  1. 01

    Replace the example inputs with your actual costs and work estimates.

  2. 02

    Compare the result with a real completed job or your current operating budget.

  3. 03

    Adjust the assumptions, download your worksheet, and review the relevant insurance questions before your business changes.

Worked example

Using the illustrative inputs below produces target labor billing rate / hour: $104.93. These are example business assumptions, not market benchmarks.

Field technicians
3 people
Hourly wage or owner labor allowance
25 $/hour
Additional payroll burden
20 %
Paid hours per week
40 hours
Paid weeks per year
52 weeks
Productive or billable share of paid time
65 %
Monthly overhead
6,000 $/month
Additional annual owner compensation
60,000 $/year
Target operating margin
25 %

Break-even rate / hour: $78.70

Annual billable hours: 4,056

Annual labor revenue target: $425,600.00

Before you rely on the numbers

Assumptions
and limitations.

  • Every prefilled number is an illustrative example, not a market average, recommended price, tax rate, or insurance quote.
  • Results use only the costs and time you enter. Include owner compensation, insurance and overhead where applicable without counting a cost twice.
  • Calculations exclude sales tax and financing unless you include them in your inputs. Round your final customer price deliberately.

From planning to protection

Your next
insurance question.

New technicians, vehicles and installation work can change the information needed for your insurance review.

Explore hvac insurance

Worksheet inputs are not submitted to a carrier or added to an insurance application. Confirm the facts in the quote form before you submit.

Explore business insurance

Before you rely on any coverage, confirm it suits your business with a licensed insurance professional.

Tell us about your actual business. Available quote paths depend on your work, state, coverage and underwriting information.

Educational information, not a coverage determination. Examples are hypothetical. Policy wording, exclusions and underwriting decide whether coverage applies.

Questions owners ask

A few useful answers.

Does this include parts markup?
No. It calculates a labor rate. Price parts and other job-specific charges separately and avoid allocating their costs twice.
Should the owner be counted as a technician?
Only when their wage is included in the technician payroll. Otherwise use separate owner compensation, with billable capacity modeled consistently.
What happens when billable utilization falls?
The same annual costs are spread over fewer billable hours, so the required rate increases.

Keep planning

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Model the payroll-rated component of workers' compensation using your own policy rate and experience modifier.

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Sources and methodology

Prepared by Kinro. Methodology and linked references checked 2026-10-29. Calculation formulas are Kinro planning models. Sources support the concepts stated below; they do not endorse our example values or results.

Educational planning only. Confirm coverage, requirements and policy suitability with a licensed insurance professional. No coverage is quoted, bound or changed by using a worksheet.