Washington D.C. heat pump incentives: 2024 guide

Uncle Sam is starting to turn to all-electric heat pumps to heat and cool some federal buildings in Washington D.C. Now homeowners in the nation’s capital are eligible for free money to make the switch, too.

Like all American taxpayers, residents of Washington D.C. are eligible for all of the heat pump incentives available through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). We've covered those benefits in detail here, but in summary:

• Any household can claim a $2,000 federal tax credit (or 30% of the price, whichever is less) against the cost to install an air-source heat pump that meets modest efficiency requirements. Since it’s a tax credit, rather than a direct rebate, you’re only eligible for as much free money as you’re on the hook to pay the IRS per year. You can claim the rebate with tax form 5695, the same one you'd use for solar panels.

• Income-dependent rebates of up to $8,000 are coming…eventually. The DC Office of Environment and Energy hasn’t yet announced when they’ll be available. As of early March 2024, D.C. hasn’t yet filed their full application for program funding, but it’s in progress, according to the US Department of Energy. If you’re counting on those rebates, you’ll need to wait until the program is in place, because the rebates will not apply retroactively to any system that was installed before the program's start date. If you absolutely need a heat pump in the meantime, just go ahead and get one, because it’ll be difficult to claim this rebate anyway: If every application received the full $8,000 rebate, there’s only enough funding for about 7,500 out of the district’s 288,000 households.

Through DCSEU (D.C. Sustainable Energy Utility), residents of Washington D.C. are eligible for a rebate of up to $700 on a high-efficiency heat pump or mini-split (or a $375 rebate on a less-efficient model). Not bad! 

You can work with any HVAC contractor that’s licensed in D.C. The rebate application must be filled out by September 30, 2024 to qualify. (It’s likely that a similar program will be implemented for next year, as it has been for the last few years, but nothing has been announced yet.) 

DCSEU also offers a free heat pump installation option for low-income households, called the Affordable Home Electrification program. Learn more here.

When you sign up for the EnergySage Marketplace, you’ll get an instant estimate of how much it might cost to install a heat pump in your home, based on real-world quotes for similar homes from vetted installers. You can schedule consultations with seasoned pros. If you want some independent guidance, one of our Energy Advisors can help you through the process. We’re already the country’s largest marketplace for solar energy, and now we’ve brought that clean-energy experience to heat pump shopping. Learn more here.

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