A new incentive program aimed at getting Maine homeowners to switch to high-efficiency heat pumps for all their heating and cooling has finally taken off, according to Efficiency Maine Trust.
The quasi-state agency provided 1,814 standard rebates for whole-home heat pump systems between July and September, outpacing the 1,805 standard rebates it approved in the previous nine months.
Efficiency Maine stopped offering financial incentives for most single-unit heat pumps last year, after research suggested most were used inefficiently for supplemental heat.
Combined with rebates for low- and middle-income households, the agency gave out incentives for 3,530 whole-home systems since its fiscal year started in July, according to Efficiency Maine Executive Director Michael Stoddard.
"It's working. It's taking off," Stoddard said.
"You know, it had a slow start, but now it's really cranking. And so all these heat pump companies are very busy. There's a lot of market demand for this, and so we're really happy about that," he added.
In Norway, Frank Damon, Ecoheat's operations manager, says it can barely keep up with demand for whole-home systems.
Ecoheat is currently scheduling installations into April, Damon said. He said the new incentives have brought in new customers.
"Most of the time when the old rebate program, it was only a couple hundred bucks, so people would get just one heat pump," he said. "Now they get to do their whole home with a larger rebate."
Gov. Janet Mills' administration has made heat pumps a cornerstone of the state's aim to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
About 52% of Maine households burn heating oil in their homes, making it the most heating oil dependent state in the country.
The Mills administration hopes to curb some of the carbon dioxide emissions from oil heating by transitioning to high-efficiency heat pumps, which it says are cheaper and more environmentally friendly. The state has secured tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to pay for the program.
In 2023, the administration announced that it had reached a goal of 100,000 heat pumps installed two years early and now aims to install 275,000 pumps in total by 2027.
But Stoddard says many of those units are not living up to their promise. That's because they are used to supplement a primary heating system, such as an oil furnace.
In theory, that should work. But in practice people use the electric units to heat a couple rooms, but the primary system is still trying to heat the whole house, according to Efficiency Maine.
When that happens, the heat pump sensors tell the pumps to stop operating, according to the agency. That's because the units work best when they work constantly to keep a consistent temperature, according to the agency.
Despite the huge number of heat pumps installed, when used supplementally, units were "not being operated to anywhere near their full potential," according to a recent Efficiency Maine analysis.
"So when you just put in one or maybe two heat pumps in a larger house, and you think you're going to use them to supplement your heating," Stoddard said.
"They do that, but they are not nearly as effective as when they are left alone to do the whole job themselves," he added.
Those findings were a major factor that led Efficiency Maine to change its rebate program to encourage whole-home systems instead.
Under the program, low-income households are eligible for up to $8,000 to cover installation costs, while middle-income people can get up to $6,000, according to Efficiency Maine.
Most homeowners are eligible for a standard rebate up to $4,000.
Stoddard said they tried to design the program to dispel concerns that the new program would skew rebates to more affluent people who could afford the higher cost of a whole-home system.
In the last four months, 53% of rebates were standard, while 29% went to middle-income homes and 18% to lower income homes, according to the agency.
"That tiered system is working very effectively to ensure that there is access across all income levels," Stoddard said.
