Heat pump rebates · Canada

Canada Greener Homes Loan 2026: how to qualify, apply, and combine with provincial rebates

By Aroon Maharaj · Published 2026-05-20 · Updated 2026-05-20 · ~12 min read

The federal Greener Homes Loan is the single largest source of heat pump funding in Canada in 2026, after the Greener Homes Grant closed to new applications in January. Up to $40,000 interest-free over 10 years, applied directly toward heat pump installation and related energy retrofits. This guide covers eligibility, the EnerGuide audit requirement, which heat pumps qualify, how the Loan stacks with the Oil-to-Heat-Pump Affordability Program and provincial top-ups, and the three most common reasons applications get rejected.

What the Greener Homes Loan actually is

The Greener Homes Loan is a 10-year, interest-free, unsecured loan of up to $40,000 administered by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) in partnership with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). It pays directly for energy-efficiency retrofits in Canadian homes, with heat pump installation as one of the qualifying retrofit categories.

It is not the Greener Homes Grant. The Grant — a separate up-to-$5,000 program that paid out cash rather than a loan — closed to new applications in January 2026. If you've read older guides referencing both, the Grant is finished. The Loan is what remains, and it's larger, but it's a loan rather than a grant. Used well, with the right contractor and the right combination of provincial programs, the loan amount is often what your install actually costs and the program operates as effectively-free financing.

Who qualifies

The Greener Homes Loan has four hard eligibility gates. Miss any one of them and the application is rejected automatically before manual review.

  1. You are the registered homeowner. Renters cannot apply. The property must be owner-occupied or owner-controlled. Multi-unit residential buildings have a separate CMHC program. If your house is held in a corporation or trust, the application is more complex and usually requires direct contact with NRCan before submission.
  2. The property is your principal residence or a secondary home you own. Pure investment rentals are excluded. A cottage that's used for personal weekends and rented out occasionally is a grey area handled case-by-case.
  3. You complete a pre-retrofit EnerGuide home evaluation by a NRCan-registered energy advisor. Without this, the application doesn't move at all. The evaluation typically costs $500-$800 and runs about 2-4 hours of in-home assessment plus a written report.
  4. The retrofit work qualifies under NRCan's eligible-measure list. For heat pumps specifically this means: air-source heat pumps must be CSA-certified and meet the published HSPF/SEER minimums for the climate zone, geothermal systems must meet COP and EER thresholds, and the installation must be done by a contractor whose work can be certified post-installation.

There is no income gate on the Loan itself. (The companion OHPAP grant program does have an income test — covered below.) Credit-check requirements are minimal compared to a conventional unsecured loan, since the loan is backed by federal program funds rather than purely commercial risk.

The EnerGuide audit: how it works and what it costs

The EnerGuide pre-retrofit evaluation is the gate that catches most first-time applicants off-guard. It's not a formality. The energy advisor does a full home assessment including blower-door test for air leakage, infrared scan for thermal bridging, a heat-loss calculation using the published BTU/hr requirements for your climate zone, and an inventory of your current heating, cooling, hot water, and major appliances.

The output is a written report that's submitted to NRCan along with your loan application. The report assigns your home an EnerGuide rating (the gigajoules-per-year energy consumption number you might have seen on real-estate listings) and identifies which retrofits would produce the largest efficiency gains.

After installation, a second evaluation — the post-retrofit assessment — is required. The energy advisor returns to verify the work was done to specification, the new equipment is operating to its rated efficiency, and the home's EnerGuide rating has actually improved. The post-retrofit fee is generally lower ($300-$500) and the federal program reimburses up to $600 of total evaluation cost if the retrofit is completed.

How to find an advisor: NRCan publishes a searchable registry of certified service organizations and energy advisors at the natural-resources-canada portal. Filter by your province and postal code. Reputable heat pump installers — including every contractor in our network — maintain working relationships with two or three local energy advisors and can recommend one. The advisor must be independent of the installer (they cannot work for the same business), which is a fraud-prevention rule that occasionally gets missed.

Which heat pumps qualify

Not every heat pump on the market qualifies for the Loan. The NRCan-published minimum performance specifications are:

  • Air-source heat pumps (ducted, central). ENERGY STAR Most Efficient certified. Minimum HSPF 10.0 (Region IV / cold-climate rating). SEER ≥ 16. Must be CSA-listed and the model must appear on the current AHRI-certified directory.
  • Air-source heat pumps (ductless mini-splits). ENERGY STAR Most Efficient certified. Minimum HSPF 11.5 (Region IV). SEER ≥ 18. AHRI-listed.
  • Cold-climate heat pumps (CCHP, ducted or ductless). Same baseline HSPF and SEER as above plus an additional cold-climate certification: the unit must maintain at least 70% of its rated heating capacity at -15°C, and must be capable of operating down to -25°C without backup. ENERGY STAR's Cold Climate Heat Pump (CCHP) program designation is the cleanest way to verify this.
  • Geothermal (ground-source) heat pumps. CSA-rated. Minimum EER 17.1 and COP 3.6 for closed-loop systems. Open-loop and pond-loop systems have slightly different thresholds.

Your installer should provide an AHRI Certificate of Product Performance (the matched-system certificate, not just the outdoor unit alone) confirming the specific indoor + outdoor combination qualifies. AHRI's online directory is searchable by model number. If your installer can't provide this certificate, the model probably doesn't qualify and you should ask for a different recommendation.

How the Loan combines with provincial rebates and OHPAP

The Greener Homes Loan stacks with most provincial programs, and with the Oil-to-Heat-Pump Affordability Program (OHPAP) where applicable. The total funding available to a single homeowner can be substantial:

  • OHPAP (federal, grant — not loan): Up to $10,000 if you currently heat with oil and your household income is below the program threshold (varies by province, generally below the median provincial household income). Stacks with the Loan. Same application portal.
  • Ontario (Home Renovation Savings program, replaced the previous Save on Energy heat pump rebate in 2025): $2,500-$7,500 depending on the heat pump category. Stacks with the federal Loan.
  • Quebec (Chauffez Vert is winding down; Rénoclimat continues): Up to $5,400 for whole-home heat pump installations, oil-to-heat-pump conversions get a $5,000 top-up. Stacks.
  • Nova Scotia (HomeWarming and HOMECare for income-qualified households, Efficiency Nova Scotia rebates for everyone else): Up to $5,000-$10,000 depending on income and system type. Stacks.
  • New Brunswick (Total Home Energy Savings Program): Up to $4,500 on heat pump installations, additional support for oil conversions. Stacks.
  • British Columbia (CleanBC Better Homes program): $3,000-$11,000 depending on heat pump category and income. Stacks.
  • Alberta (no provincial heat pump rebate currently, but federal programs remain available).

A worked example: a Nova Scotia household currently on oil heat, with $55,000 household income (within the OHPAP threshold), installing a $24,000 cold-climate ducted heat pump system can stack:

  • Greener Homes Loan: up to $24,000 interest-free over 10 years (the loan covers the install in full).
  • OHPAP grant: $10,000 paid directly to the contractor at install time.
  • Nova Scotia HomeWarming: $5,000 top-up.
  • Total grant + program funding: $15,000.
  • Effective out-of-pocket cost after grants: $9,000, financed interest-free.
  • Monthly loan payment: $75 over 120 months.

The same install in Ontario (no oil conversion, just a replacement of an electric furnace) might stack the federal Loan with $5,000 in Home Renovation Savings, dropping the net cost to $19,000 financed interest-free. The economics shift dramatically by province and by current heating system. Our rebate guide tracks each province's current program and update cycle.

The application process, step by step

  1. Pre-retrofit EnerGuide evaluation (week 1-2). Book a NRCan-registered energy advisor. Have the home audited. Receive the written report. Expected cost: $500-$800. Reimbursed up to $600 after retrofit completion.
  2. Choose your installer and get a written quote (week 2-3). The quote must list the specific heat pump model, the AHRI matched-system certificate number, the projected install date, and the rebate amounts the installer will help you claim. Every installer in our directory provides this without prompting.
  3. Submit Loan application (week 3-4). Through the federal portal at the natural-resources-canada Greener Homes site. Attach the EnerGuide pre-retrofit report and the installer's written quote. Initial approval decision in 4-8 weeks.
  4. Loan approval received (week 8-12). NRCan issues a loan approval letter with the maximum amount and the 18-month installation window.
  5. Installation (anytime in the 18-month window, typically 1-2 months after loan approval if the installer has capacity). Most heat pump installs take 1-3 days of on-site work. Your installer typically requests OHPAP grant funds and provincial rebates paid directly to them at install, reducing your out-of-pocket cost immediately.
  6. Post-retrofit EnerGuide evaluation (within 18 months of loan approval, ideally within 30 days of install). Same energy advisor returns, verifies the install, files the post-retrofit report.
  7. Final loan disbursement (within 30 days of post-retrofit acceptance). Funds released to you to pay the installer balance.

Three reasons applications get rejected

From talking to installers and energy advisors across our network, the rejection patterns are consistent. If you avoid these three issues, your application moves through without intervention.

  1. The heat pump model doesn't appear on the AHRI matched-system directory. A single outdoor unit listed in the AHRI database isn't enough — the specific indoor + outdoor combination has to be in the matched-system directory. We see this most often with budget multi-zone systems that were marketed as "AHRI-listed" but the specific 1+3 or 1+4 head configuration the homeowner ordered wasn't tested and certified as a system. Solution: ask your installer for the AHRI certificate number for the matched system before signing the quote.
  2. The energy advisor was affiliated with the installer. NRCan requires the energy advisor to be independent. If the audit was done by someone the installer recommended and the two share a business relationship (employer-employee, partnership, parent company), the application is flagged. Solution: book the energy advisor independently of the installer. NRCan's registry lets you filter by region and the registered advisors operate as independent service businesses.
  3. The post-retrofit evaluation isn't filed within 18 months of loan approval. This trips up homeowners who get loan approval, then delay installation for material or contractor reasons, and miss the post-retrofit deadline. Solution: don't apply for the Loan until your installer can give you a firm install date within 12 months. Some applicants apply too early because they read older guides that referenced a 36-month window. The current window is 18 months from approval and it does not extend.

When the Loan is not the right move

A few scenarios where the Loan is worse than alternatives:

  • You have cash available and your provincial rebate alone covers the install. If your effective out-of-pocket after provincial-only rebates is below $5,000, skipping the Loan also skips the EnerGuide audit cost and the 8-12 week processing wait. For a quick replacement of a failed furnace in cold weather, this matters.
  • You're not staying in the home long-term. The Loan is unsecured and stays with you if you sell, so it's not a deal-breaker, but the 18-month post-retrofit deadline means a planned move within 18 months adds risk if the install is delayed.
  • You're installing a heat pump system that doesn't meet the NRCan minimum specs. Budget air-source units below HSPF 10.0 won't qualify regardless of how you finance them. In that case the Loan is unavailable and the question becomes whether the rebate-eligible model is worth the higher equipment cost (it usually is, but the calculation is install-specific).

Next step

If you want a written quote that already includes the Greener Homes Loan path, OHPAP eligibility check (if you heat with oil), and the provincial rebate stack for your specific address, request one from us. The form goes to one licensed installer in your province who will respond within 24 hours with everything itemized.

Get a free quote within 24 hours

Sources

Natural Resources Canada — Canada Greener Homes Loan program documentation (current as of 2026-05). Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation — administrator information. AHRI Directory of Certified Product Performance. ENERGY STAR Canada — Cold Climate Heat Pump (CCHP) certification list. Provincial program references: Ontario Home Renovation Savings, Quebec Rénoclimat, Nova Scotia HomeWarming + Efficiency Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Total Home Energy Savings Program, British Columbia CleanBC Better Homes. This guide is updated quarterly. Last full source check: 2026-05-20.