Oil to Heat Pump Incentive Program

2015 – 2018

The Oil to Heat Pump Incentive Program was an initiative launched by the Province of British Columbia and supported by City Green. The program was created to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps as a means of replacing less efficient oil heating systems, in order to achieve greenhouse gas reductions and improve home energy efficiency in BC.

The program’s original target was the installation of at least 200 air source heat pumps (ASHP) over three years. Ultimately, 472 installations were completed: 309 central heat pumps and 163 mini-split heat pumps. The Oil to Heat Pump Incentive Program resulted in 3,417 CO2e /year in greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions over the course of the program, a modeled 34,175t CO2e over ten years. This is an average GHG reduction of 96.5% (7.25t CO2e/year) per home, an average reduction of 51% in whole home energy consumption, and an average reduction of 73% in space heating energy consumption. Most participants (81.5%) also completed other energy saving upgrades to their homes.