Fix First Home › Oil to Heat Pump Affordability — Nova Scotia
Oil to Heat Pump Affordability — Nova Scotia closed-to-registration
Administered by Efficiency Nova Scotia, delivering the federal programme on behalf of Natural Resources Canada.
The federal oil-to-heat-pump money as Nova Scotia delivered it, for oil-heated households under the income line. It is closed. Applications already in, and those on the standby list, are still reviewed if more funding appears.
source · verified 23 September 2026
What it pays
Closed. What an oil-heated Nova Scotia home can get now
Under HomeWarming’s income line, the work is free: an assessment, draft-proofing and insulation, and a single-zone heat pump where the assessment recommends one (no whole-home systems since this programme closed). Under the income ceilings below, the same ones the Moderate Income Rebate uses, a centrally ducted heat pump earns $2,000 a ton: that programme’s $1,500 on top of the Home Energy Assessment’s $500. At any income, the Home Energy Assessment alone pays $500 a ton, after a $199 assessment. In Halifax, an oil-heated home built before 2000 can also finance the heat pump and insulation through the HalifACT Home Energy Upgrade: 4.75% over ten years, repaid as a charge on the property, if the work cuts the home’s energy use by half.
No published cap — and that is the honest answer
Nova Scotia never published a single figure for this. The amount depended on the qualifying heat pump, and the rebate for each model sat on the two qualifying-equipment lists rather than on the programme page. With the programme closed there is no live figure to quote.
Who is eligible
Adjusted income, calculated by subtracting line 435 from line 236 of your Notice of Assessment. The same table the Moderate Income Rebate uses.
| People in household | Income ceiling |
|---|---|
| 1 person | $37,260 |
| 2 people | $77,050 |
| 3 people | $98,900 |
| 4 people | $120,750 |
| 5 or more people | $126,500 |
- homeowners only
- Yes
- tenure
- You own the home, it is your primary residence, and you are not about to sell it.
- oil consumption
- Primarily oil heated, burning at least 500 litres in the previous 12 months, shown by proof of purchase.
- equipment
- Only cold-climate centrally ducted and ductless mini-split air source heat pumps qualified.
The thing most pages get wrong
Being on the standby list is not funding. Efficiency Nova Scotia says applications already submitted and those on standby will keep being reviewed if additional funding becomes available, and says plainly that standby does not guarantee anything.
And the second thing
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick both closed this within three days of each other — Nova Scotia on 2 July 2026 because the money ran out, New Brunswick on 30 June 2026 because Ottawa closed registration. Two different reasons, the same week, and the co-delivery route that made Atlantic Canada different is gone in both.
Why it closed
The available funding was fully allocated. From 2 July 2026 Efficiency Nova Scotia stopped accepting new applications. It ran out of money rather than reaching an end date.
Sources
- https://www.efficiencyns.ca/programs-rebates/oil-to-heat-pump-affordability-program — primary source, read 23 September 2026