The outdoor unit of a heat pump helps move heat in or out of your house depending on the season. Summer is here! Now is a great time to prepare your home for the weather ahead.
As climate change continues to warm our region, Seattle is experiencing more frequent and intense hot weather. At the City, we’re reducing the emissions that cause climate change while helping community members prepare their homes for the hotter summers that are already here.
Heat pumps are one of the ways we’re helping to build more resilient communities that can withstand and adapt to the weather now and for decades to come. If you currently have oil heat, the City offers multiple ways to make the switch to a heat pump.
Through our Clean Heat program, Seattle households of any income can get $2,000 in rebates toward a qualified heat pump, and income-eligible households can receive an additional $4,000 for a total of $6,000 in savings. Households with lower incomes may qualify for a free heat pump through Seattle’s Office of Housing.
A more comfortable and affordable future
Credit: Mitsubishi Electric
Heat pumps provide efficient heating in the winter and cooling during the summer, helping households stay safer, healthier, and more comfortable. Heat pumps work by capturing heat from outside air and moving it inside to heat the house in the winter. In the summer, it cools the house by moving heat from inside to outside.
Investing in a heat pump has long-term advantages. Heat pumps are three to four times more efficient than oil furnaces and can reduce heating costs by more than 70%.* With oil prices remaining high, many households can lower their winter energy bills.
A sustainable and climate-friendly option
Switching from oil heat can help protect your property and the environment. Heating oil is often stored in underground tanks that can corrode over time (links to PDF) and leak into yards and nearby waterways, creating costly cleanups. Oil tanks have heightened contamination risks as climate change brings more frequent heavy rainfall and flooding.
Heat pumps are powered by carbon-neutral electricity provided by Seattle City Light, which helps reduce climate pollution and improve local air quality.
Meeting our climate goals takes everyone. Heat pump incentives and free conversion programs like Clean Heat help make these crucial upgrades more accessible to all community members. They also align with and advance the goals of Seattle’s Climate Action Plan, which underscores that solutions must happen at all scales and come from individuals, communities, businesses, and government. The Climate Action Plan survey is open through July 20. Take the survey and help shape Seattle’s climate future.
Learn more about how Seattle is partnering with communities to build climate resilience, including the new Climate Ready Curriculum, a free resource to help neighbors learn about and prepare for extreme heat, flooding, wildfire smoke, and other climate hazards.
Ready to make the switch?
Contact one of our participating contractors today to get a free estimate and choose the qualified heat pump that’s right for your home.
The City of Seattle recently received $1.6 million from the Washington State Department of Commerce to help households transition off fossil fuels. This funding will help extend our $4,000 bonus rebate for households with moderate incomes, which can be combined with our existing $2,000 Clean Heat rebate for households of any income.
This funding will also help provide free heat pumps and heat pump water heaters for households that meet the income requirements and are moving off natural gas through the Seattle Office of Housing’s program. The City’s Assistance and Discount page can help you explore City assistance and discount programs based on your income and household.
The Clean Heat bonus rebates and free gas to heat pump conversions are also supported by funding from Washington’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA). The CCA supports Washington’s climate action efforts by putting cap-and-invest dollars to work reducing climate pollution, creating jobs, and improving public health.
Thank you to all of our partners helping households access heat pumps. For more immediate relief from the heat, check out some other tips from Seattle City Light for staying cool during a heat wave.
*These savings calculations are based on a flat electricity rate of $0.1338 per kilowatt hour of electricity, a heat pump HSPF2 efficiency rating of 9.2, oil price of $7 per gallon, and oil furnace efficiency of 80%. Individual savings may vary depending on realized energy usage, energy prices, and system efficiencies.