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Dive Brief:

• The city of Seattle announced last week that it’s offering a new $4,000 rebate for moderate-income households to replace their oil heating systems with electric heat pumps.
• The rebate means income-qualified residents can access a total of up to $8,000 in support for transitioning to heat pumps, by stacking the new rebate with the city’s existing, non-income-restricted $2,000 instant rebate and a $2,000 federal tax credit.
• Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has set a goal that no homes will be heated with oil by 2030. According to the city, an average household using 500 gallons of heating oil annually can save more than 50% on their heating costs, or $1,100 per year, by switching to a heat pump.

Dive Insight:

The push toward heat pumps is in full force. Earlier this year, nine states pledged that zero-emission heat pumps would make up at least 90% of residential-scale heating, air conditioning and water heating equipment shipments by 2040. California’s most recently adopted energy code updates encourage the installation of heat pumps in new homes. 

Air-source heat pumps would lower energy bills for a majority of U.S. households, most significantly in colder climates, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory found earlier this year. 

Those cost savings are a major motivator for the city of Seattle to encourage heat pump adoption. “As we head from a record-hot summer into the winter months, Seattle residents are transitioning from cooling their homes in unprecedented ways to facing down high heating bills,” Jessyn Farrell, director of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment, said in a statement.

The new $4,000 rebate is effective through May 2025, or while funding lasts, the city said. It comes after Washington state gave the city $3.2 million earlier this year to expand its Clean Heat Program and offer free gas appliance-to-heat pump conversions to 52 low-income households. The funding will also increase rebates for 125 small businesses to access heat pumps and heat pump water heaters, according to a press release. 

The state funding comes from Washington’s cap-and-invest program, which requires businesses to obtain allowances from the state to emit greenhouse gases.