Fix First HomeWhat home-upgrade rebates actually pay — and who you apply to.

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HalifACT Home Energy Upgrade open

Administered by Halifax Regional Municipality, with SwitchPACE as the programme's navigator.

Halifax's financing for oil-heated homes built before 2000: the municipality pays for heat pumps, insulation and an electric water heater, and you repay it over 10 years at a fixed 4.75%. It is a whole-house retrofit, not a heat pump loan: the work has to cut the home's modelled energy use by at least half.

source · verified 27 September 2026

What it pays

Interest rate
4.75%, fixed
Term
10 years
What it finances
Heat pumps on Efficiency Nova Scotia's ducted and ductless lists; attic, basement header, crawlspace, basement wall and exterior wall insulation; electric water heaters; and the work around them: taking out the oil tank and furnace, an electrical service upgrade if the heat pump needs one, ducts, and a heat or energy recovery ventilator where needed
What it does not finance
New siding or cladding, and solar panels (Halifax's Solar City programme finances those)
How you repay
A voluntary Local Improvement Charge on the property, billed once a year and separately from the property tax bill
Paying early
Allowed at any time, without penalty; the lien comes off when the balance is paid
If you sell
Pay off the balance, or pass the charge to the buyer if both of you agree

No published cap — and that is the honest answer

Halifax publishes no maximum loan. Its own pilot is the only guide to size: the average upgrade cost about $30,000 to reach a 50 per cent cut in energy use. The programme administrator decides what is financed, and says the list of eligible measures may change.

Who is eligible

Who can register

  • A home in the Halifax Regional Municipality
  • Heated with oil today
  • Built before 2000
  • A residential building, with its municipal taxes and charges in good standing

What you have to do to keep the financing

  • Have a home energy assessment first. Only upgrades it recommends are financed.
  • Get quotes that match the recommended upgrades.
  • Install at least the heat pump and insulation specifications the assessment sets. Halifax's own answer to "Do I have to install insulation?" is "Yes."
  • Pass a post-retrofit assessment showing an estimated cut in energy use of 50 per cent or more.
  • Use contractors who do the work to all applicable codes.

What disqualifies you

The rules people find out about after the work is done.

  • A home heated by anything other than oil.
  • A home built in 2000 or later.
  • A property outside the Halifax Regional Municipality, or behind on municipal taxes or charges.
  • A project that does not reach an estimated 50 per cent cut in energy use, or skips the recommended insulation.

Where the application goes

You register with the municipality, which checks the property, then a navigator takes you through the assessment, quotes and milestones.

Where the application goes
If this is youApply here
Register and check eligibilityhalifax.ca
Questions before you registerThe programme navigator (SwitchPACE): (902) 812-5028 or [email protected]

The thing most pages get wrong

It is described as heat pump financing for Halifax homeowners. It is financing for one kind of home, oil-heated and built before 2000, and only for a whole-house retrofit. The eligibility rule appears as the registration form's first question, not in the headline, and the financing depends on insulating as the assessment recommends and on reaching an estimated 50 per cent cut in energy use.

Halifax links an older heat pump list

The financing guide links Efficiency Nova Scotia's ducted and ductless heat pump lists dated November 2025. Efficiency Nova Scotia's own heat pump page now links lists dated June 2026. Check the model you are quoted against the current list before you sign.

What 4.75% over ten years costs

Halifax's Solar City programme uses the same charge, and its guide works an example: $15,000 repaid in ten yearly instalments of $1,500 plus interest comes to $3,206.25 of interest. A $30,000 retrofit, the pilot's average, would carry twice that on the same schedule.

Sources