Richmond city council approved new CleanBC municipal incentives for heat pumps at $350 per home, which the city hopes will help double the number of retrofits.
The purpose of the rebates is to encourage residents to adopt electric heat pumps.
In the 2024 capital plan, city staff noted that “there was relatively little uptake of heat pumps in B.C., however the cost of heating with heat pumps is now less than that with natural gas.”
“Electric heat pumps are typically three times more efficient than the best-performing natural gas furnaces and boilers. GHG emissions from the electricity grid is only six per cent of the equivalent amount of natural gas energy,” the city explained in a report.
It is estimated that replacing furnaces and domestic water heaters in houses built between 1946 and 1990 with electric heat pumps could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 3.48 tons per year per house.
Replacing existing gas-based home water systems with electric heat pumps could further reduce emissions by one ton per year.
Implementing these measures together could reduce the annual GHG of an average household by 85-90 per cent.
Under a previous CleanBC plan, the province was already giving rebates up to $6,000 to homeowners who installed a heat pump instead of natural gas, propane or oil.
As well, they were providing rebates up to $2,000 for homes that were upgraded from electric or wood-heating systems to a heat pump.
The new municipal top-up rebates will be funded by the City of Richmond, using the provincial Local Government Climate Action Program funding, with BC Hydro administering the delivery of the incentive to applicants.
The incentives could start as early as July 1 of this year.
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