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Ottawa wants to get you off home heating oil and onto heat pumps

February 22, 2023 – Ottawa wants to get homeowners off of oil heating and onto electric heat pumps.

Starting today, eligible homeowners across Canada can pre-register through the Canada Greener Homes Initiative—Oil to Heat Pump Affordability (OHPA) Program—to begin their applications for accessing up to $5000 in federal support to make the switch from heating oil to electric heat pumps.

Those who pre-register will be contacted once final program details are launched in the coming weeks, says Natural Resources Canada. Currently, full registration is available through delivery partners in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

This support is in addition to up to $5000 in federal support from the $2.6-billion Canada Greener Homes Grant (CGHG). With the OHPA Program, low- to medium-income homeowners may qualify to receive a total upfront payment of up to $10,000.

They could further benefit by combining additional financial assistance from other existing provincial, territorial, federal and utility programs, such as those already available on The Island and Nova Scotia.

According to NRCan, homeowners who switch from oil to cold-climate heat pumps to heat their homes save between $1500 and $4700 per year on home energy bills, on average. The heat pump can also provide cooling by transferring warm indoor air to the outside.

Cold-climate air-source heat pumps have been designed to work in temperatures as low as -30 C.