Checked September 26, 2026
Current Maine heat-pump rebates, without outdated federal promises.
Use the current claim-form rules as a planning estimate. Efficiency Maine—not Hita—makes the final eligibility and payment decision.
Standard primary-heating path
Current claim formWhole-home ducted path: the current flat amounts are $3,000, $6,000, or $9,000 per housing unit by the same tiers, reduced by prior heat-pump rebates paid for that housing unit. Existing-housing projects must remove all forced-air furnaces; a remaining hydronic boiler is not automatically disqualifying. New construction can include no furnace or boiler. Program paths cannot be stacked for the same upgrade.
Principal-residence and income-verification rules: for the standard and whole-home ducted paths, principal-residence status is an additional requirement for the enhanced low- and moderate-income amounts—not for the any-income amount. Enhanced amounts require Efficiency Maine income verification; self-reported status alone is not approval.
$500 limited-time addition: the dated current claim forms add $500 once per housing unit when it has not already been received and both project completion and the claim email/postmark fall from March 1 through December 31, 2026. The forms calculate this addition separately after the housing-unit lifetime-cap balance.
Low-income supplemental first-heat-pump path: an Efficiency Maine-verified low-income household may qualify for $3,000 toward the housing unit’s $9,000 lifetime cap when the owner-occupied principal residence did not have a natural-gas utility account before the upgrade, this is its first heat pump, the eligible single-zone unit meets the project-location design-temperature requirement and will heat the home throughout the heating season, and a registered vendor installs it. It cannot be stacked with another rebate path for the same upgrade. Read the official supplemental claim form.
Equipment, property, ownership, income verification, natural-gas status, primary-heating role, applicable design-temperature or load-and-capacity requirements, registered-vendor installation, housing-unit prior rebates, the six-month claim deadline, funding, and other rules can change the result. An estimate is not approval.
Federal 25C update: The IRS states the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit is not allowed for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. The 2026 calculator therefore uses $0 for that federal credit.
How to use the estimator
Treat the amount as a planning range, not a discount already earned or a net project cost. Choose “Not sure” for anything that still requires a contractor, model-list, applicable design or load review, income-tier verification, or Efficiency Maine review.
What to bring to the assessment
- Project address, housing unit, and property type
- Current primary heat source and whether the housing unit had a natural-gas utility account before the upgrade
- Areas of the home the heat pumps will serve
- Cap-counting Efficiency Maine heat-pump rebates paid for this housing unit across prior projects, owners, and paths—excluding the separately tracked $500 addition
- Whether the one-time $500 addition was already paid for this housing unit
- Expected completion and claim dates, if known