Yes, actually. Up here in Canada we've been running subsidies for electric heat-exchangers (think like an air conditioner that can work in the opposite direction when it's cold) for a couple years now. It is absolutely possible to offset oil subsidies with electric subsidies.
this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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Yup, I'm almost through the process right now. $0 cost to me (they're paying me a $250 bonus as well). My home is more than 30 years old, contrary to what another comment said about the feasibility of such a program in the US. It's definitely possible in Canada!
Yes rebates on heat pumps, especially inexpensive air to air heat pumps drive adoption. They are efficient and now work in almost any climate.
mmm...so they claim. I know people with heat pumps who needed to install secondary heating. Entirely depends on house size.
Of course it depends on the house; just like you wouldn't put a moped engine in a tank, a heat pump needs to be sized for the space to be heated (or cooled).
Not just size, location. The best heat pumps stop working at around -20. Where I live it gets colder than that for a few days every couple years so I must have secondary heating.
The common heat pump in the US is only good to 25. There is no reason for this, but I don't know how to fix it.
If you're installing the right sized heat pump for the space you're heating, they're great. If you try to heat Buckingham Palace with a space heater, you're going to have a bad time.
The other thing we need to do is investigate why they charge so much to install heat pumps. I can buy a mini-split for around $1500 (depending on size), but they will charge me $4500 to install it - which seems unreasonable for the labor.
Because there are inevitably licensing and especially permit application costs, the major cost there being the time and aggravation required to get the permit from your local authority which is usually an intentionally dysfunctional Kafkaesque bureaucratic edifice to hell that makes the DMV look like the teacup ride at Disney World.
Fun fact: In my county you are required to pull a permit (with a three to six month typical application wait time) to "install" any heating or cooling equipment, which technically also includes plug-in space heaters and window mounted air conditioners. To rub salt in the wound, you also need to pull a new permit to "uninstall" said equipment, that is to say to unplug it and put it away for the season. Yes, the system is certainly working as designed! (You also need a permit to install or replace a water heater. I'm sure every homeowner with a water tank that just blew and is now standing in a basement 12" deep in water with every other resident of the house screaming at them that they can't take a shower is absolutely thrilled at that prospect. I predict the compliance rate with both of these requirements is as close to zero as mathematics will allow.)
because it takes a lot of labor to install them.
that's a low estimate. my estimate was $10,000 to install it for a single condo unit. I've seen many as high as 30-40K for mid-sized homes.
If a single person working alone can install them in a weekend - which happens all the time - a pro who has experience in doing this often should be able to do it for $1000 or less. It is a lot of labor but not more than $4000 worth. At least not the normal case.
ok, so why don't you go around installing them for $1000?
seems like there is a big market for it, no?
installing a heat pump is a one-day job, even with just one person. people deserve to be paid for their labour, but $400+/hr is excessive
Yes, my state has incentives for heat pump installs and a special electric rate for heat pump users (for those who heat with electric only)
I got a smaller incentive for installing a heat pump in my family room but still keeping my gas furnace. Electricity is pretty expensive here so the tradeoff is about 45°F. Above that the efficiency of the heat pump wins out, but colder than that the furnace is cheaper.
I did try the heat pump when it was cold, and it still produced a respectable amount of heat at 20°F
Resistive heating is a waste of energy. If you people can use your AC units as heat pumps, then we're getting somewhere, if your grid can survive that
An AC unit is a heat pump. The heat is pumped out.
If the grid can run the AC it should be able to handle the heat pumps, arent they basically the same machine?
Almost, but the temperature difference is generally much greater in winter than summer meaning there is more demand for energy in winter. Also solar (and sometimes hydro) power is less effective in winter. Both factors mean that a grid that can handle summer might not be able to handle winter heat.
Remember, the above are factors. Your local grid's exact energy mix matters here, some will have no problems.
It could help but gas heat is cheaper per BTU than heat pumps in most of the USA due to low gas prices caused by a glut of gas from the fracking boom.
This would be one barrier. Hopefully the government could justify the cost differences in light of the climate crisis. With the conflict in Iran, the cost of oil is rising anyway.
Definitely not likely under the current drill baby drill administration, but energy wise it would be the smarter play for energy security.
No, because they cost too much. Heat Pump installation costs 30K in my city.
How are you going to make that affordable for poor folks w/o a massive subsidy? like 25K? much cheaper to give oil subsidies that cost a thousand bucks per family.
They already offer subsidies in my state, but they are like 5K, which means they benefit rich people who can afford the 30K price tag, and wait a year or two to see the rebate on their taxes. Just like with electric cars, overwhelming helps wealthy folks.
electric heaters are also horrible inefficient compared to fossil fuels. electric heating has much higher costs than oil and is far less efficient.
You'd need some sort of massive federal program to massively expand production and installation to bring costs down so they became affordable for average people.
Also a large number of homes can't accept heat pumps at all. They are basically need to be on oil/gas heat, or be demolished/refurbed entirely for a heat pump system to work for them. Heat pump installation in my city is usually done during a gut renovation.
electric heaters are also horrible inefficient compared to fossil fuels. electric heating has much higher costs than oil and is far less efficient.
Wait until you hear about the efficency(Coefficient of perfomance) of heatpumps.
I know all about heat pumps. I'm a homeowner. the tech has been around for decades but it wasn't usable in cold climates until recently when it became efficient enough to perform at below freezing temps.
But good ole lemmy doesn't like facts of reality and it's difficulties being discussed. they'd rather think real world problems can just magically be solved by good intentions, because they don't have much real life experience.
it thinks 50 year problems can be solved in 6 months if you just 'do it'. when realistically upgrading everyone to heatpumps would take 50+ years, and by then there will be better tech anyway.