Handing out heat pumps
Prince Edward Island brings decarbonization home.
Photo courtesy of the Government of PEI.
Heat pumps are extremely efficient. Depending on make, model, and modernity, they can deliver as much heat as electric baseboards, oil furnaces, and propane boilers while consuming about one third the power.
This is because heat pumps don’t actually generate heat. They pluck it from thin air – even when that air’s -30°C – then move it indoors. So, while baseboards convert electricity to heat with 100 per cent efficiency, and furnaces do the same with oil at 60-85 per cent efficiency, heat pumps manage 190 per cent efficiency, and higher, shuffling warmth around rather than making it from scratch.
Prince Edward Island recognized these savings a while back, offering provincial heat pump rebates which peaked at $1,200 in 2019 — an effort to soften home heating bills in households otherwise unable to afford one — and in 2020, with the pandemic in full swing, they went a step further.
“During the spike in home heating oil costs during Covid, we came up with the idea of an income-qualified program which provided heat pumps for free,” says Derek Ellis, director of PEI’s sustainability division.
The aptly named Free Heat Pump Program officially launched in 2021, offering households with total annual incomes below $75,000 (later $100,000) a free, single-head, mini-split heat pump, while those with higher annual incomes could still access the aforementioned $1,200 rebate.
“At the time,” he says, “the real driver was affordability for Islanders feeling the pinch of extreme inflation.”
But for Ellis, another driver was climate change. Prince Edward Island has legislated the target of becoming a net-zero province by 2040, and buildings alone account for 19 per cent of Island emissions, with 52.8 per cent of households heating with furnace oil. Since the Free Heat Pump Program launched, the volume of furnace oil burnt on PEI has declined by between 10-15 per cent per year.
“That’s enormously beneficial for our greenhouse gas emissions,” says Ellis. “And what we’re seeing here on PEI is that some companies selling heating oil are diversifying by starting to install heat pumps.”
In 2024, PEI’s Free Heat Pump Program was merged with the federal government’s Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program, which the province is now co-delivering. Residents wanting a free heat pump can still get one, but if that heat pump is specifically replacing an oil furnace, federal dollars become available. This, in turn, allows the household in question to install several heat pumps, alongside supplemental baseboard heaters, energy efficient hot water heaters, and an upgraded electrical panel, all free, with new income caps as high as $129,000 (depending on number of household residents).
While it takes a different shape in every province, the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program is also being co-delivered in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia, and the Yukon.
The number of heat pumps installed for free on Prince Edward Island recent passed 13,000, says Ellis, with another 9,000 in the queue. This doesn’t include the thousands installed via the province’s original heat pump rebate program (still up and running).
How much furnace oil these heat pumps displace is a difficult number to nail down, but a report published on PEI’s progress to net-zero for the 2023-2024 fiscal year estimates the 7,259 free heat pumps, 1,848 free electric hot water heaters and 848 free insulation retrofits (another decarbonization program) completed just in those 12 months amount to roughly 9 million litres unburnt.
The Free Heat Pump Program’s lifespan will depend on the continued participation of Islanders, says Ellis, but the number of heat pumps installed isn’t his only metric for success. PEI’s housing industry has been following the province’s lead, with over 90 per cent of new builds heated electrically — most via heat pumps. This, he says, bodes well for provincial emissions going forward.
“I think we’re at a point where heat pump technology, whether mini splits or centralized systems, are starting to become the status quo. We’re not seeing a lot of oil in new construction these days.”
Climate Stories Atlantic is an initiative of Climate Focus, a non-profit organization dedicated to covering stories about community-driven climate solutions.
