Are you eligible?

Here’s what you need to be eligible to get a heat pump rebate: 

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1. You need to own the house. If you are a tenant, you can see if your property owner would be interested in applying but you cannot do so yourself.
    

2. You need to be using natural gas from Enbridge or electricity from Ontario’s grid for your home heating. Here in Toronto, this means you would likely be a customer of Enbridge and use a natural gas furnace or boiler system. Or, you would be a customer of Toronto Hydro and use electrical baseboards to heat your home.  
    

3. Your home needs to be a permanent house and not brand new. A permanent house would be a single detached, semi-detached, row house, townhome or mobile home on a permanent foundation. Any newly built homes that have been lived in for less than six months are too new for this program. 
    

4. You need to follow all the fine print of the Home Renovations Savings Program! There’s a lot of it; we will help walk you through it below… 

 

The fine print of the Program 

Let’s break down some of the more fiddly details you will need to meet to actually get your rebate back at the end of the day: 

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You must install a qualified cold climate air source heat pump (ccASHP) 

You can find the listing of eligible models using this difficult to use NRCan webpage or download an excel file with all 120,000 models which, sadly, might be easier to navigate! 
 
OUR ADVICE: Already you can see that having an expert to guide you will save you a time and headaches. We strongly recommend you engage a Retrofit Advisor who can help you understand what you need for your home, before you start talking with installers.

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Wait, can’t I install a ground source or geothermal heat pump too? Yes, you can but for most homeowners in Toronto this is just not a realistic choice. 

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The contractor who installs your heat pump must be one of the program’s “participating contractors.” 

They want you to fill out a form before you can see this list of contractors, but you can review the Contractor Directory with this link. Pop in your postal code and see who services your area. The contractor will handle applying for your rebate so you want to be sure they can do so and know the ins and outs of the program. 
 
OUR ADVICE: Be careful! Just because a contractor is on this list doesn’t mean that they will do a great job installing your heat pump. If you’re excited about a rebate, you better believe that HVAC contractors are too! You want to find a contractor that is an expert at doing quality heat pump installs. This is more complicated than swapping in another oversized furnace. Retrofit Advisors can help guide you, talking to neighbours is always wise and we have a whole article on how to select a contractor. At the absolute minimum, get three quotes and read reviews specifically about heat pump installations. You can also ask for opinions on the Home Retrofit Forum Facebook group.

 

But I LOVE my HVAC contractor, and they are not listed in the directory! You might have a contractor you really trust. If they have been upskilling themselves to install modern heat pumps and are interested, your wonderful contractor can fill out a form to join the directory. We need good people doing this work, so encourage them if you can! 

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Some even finer print… 

There are a handful of other things to keep in mind about this program: 
 

• You might want to install back up heating with your heat pump but only the heat pump is eligible for the rebate. Electric coils or a gas furnace that makes your system a hybrid cannot count towards the rebate. 
   

• If you are installing a mini-split system, both an indoor and outdoor unit must be installed. You can’t just upgrade parts of an existing mini-split heat pump. If you have no idea what a mini-split system is, we have an article that explains the basics of heat pumps for you. 
   

• You cannot stack rebates, but you may be able to combine this with low or zero interest loans. You can’t combine rebates in this program but there is a federal zero interest loan called the Canada Greener Homes Loan Program as well as the municipal Home Energy Loan Program. These are great loan programs but they, of course, come with a lot of forms to fill out. Both loan programs will require you to do pre and post home energy assessment which adds complexity and added expenses to your job but it’s an excellent choice if you’re considering more than just a heat pump. 
   

• What about my second home or my cottage? You can apply for the rebate for any home you own. Own some rentals, a cottage? Each house is eligible for the rebate. 
   

• I use heating oil/propane/wood for my heating am I eligible? No, there should be programs coming soon which will be available for you. In Toronto all of these are a rarity, but heating oil is still used in some homes. For that you should check out the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability program. 

How much money can I save? 

This will depend on how you heat your home and what size of heat pump you are installing. Again, we will assume you’re a Torontonian installing a cold climate air source heat pump (ccASHP).

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​I use electricity to heat my home (e.g. baseboard heaters) 

• Eligible rebate: $1,250 per ton 

• Maximum rebate: $7,500 or 30% of heat pump costs

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I use gas to heat my home (e.g. forced air furnace or boiler and radiators) 

• Eligible rebate: $500 per ton 

• Maximum rebate: $2,000 or 30% of heat pump costs 

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What’s all this about “per ton”? 

This is important! Your Retrofit Advisor will (and your heat pump installer should, though some do not) calculate the size of heat pump you need based on the size and condition of your home, degree of insulation and air leakage, air ducts, etc.  The size of the heat pump will be measured in tons. (More specifically, it will be rated by nominal ton which is equivalent to 12,000 BTUs an hour or 3.5kW.) Basically, the more heating you need the more tons your heat pump will be. For the vast majority of Toronto homeowners, you will be looking at heat pumps that are 2, 2.5 or 3 tons. 

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Let’s assume you are about average and want to install a beautiful new 2.5-ton heat pump:
 

• If you are currently using electric baseboards your rebate will be $3,125 so long as your installation costs over $10,500 which is likely. 
   

• If you are currently using gas your rebate will be $1,250 which isn’t going to be more than 30% of the installation costs. 

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How to best use this program 

For most Toronto homeowners, this is going to be a helpful program to easily cut down on the cost of upgrading to a heat pump. We believe this is an excellent program to use for the following scenarios: 
 

• Your furnace is over 12 years old and you’re looking to replace it. In this case, upgrading to a ccASHP is going to make a lot of sense. Depending on your home you may want backup heat like electrical strips that can handle even the coldest months. 
   

• Your furnace is still new, but your AC is getting older. In this case, swapping your AC unit for a heat pump will be a major boost. It will likely save you money when it’s cooling your home in the summer, and it can tackle most of the shoulder seasons with your furnace jumping in to help during the winter months. 
   

• You have a radiator system and want to improve your home comfort. Many people with radiators are relying on old window air conditioning in the summer and may be interested in heat pumps.  Connecting an air source heat pump to a radiator system is not yet readily available in Canada (though common in Europe). This rebate is a great opportunity to install a mini-split heat pump to get comfortable, energy-efficient cooling in summer and lower your heating gas bills in winter. 

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Want to make multiple improvements to your home or make use of some of the loan programs available to fund the work? There’s more paperwork and organization needed, but it can certainly be worthwhile. You can explore the other side of the Home Renovations Savings Program which requires a home energy assessment.