It’s never been a better time to buy a heat pump. According to data from the AHRI, Americans bought 21 percent more air-source heat pumps in 2023 than gas-powered furnaces, the next-most popular heating appliance. That’s the biggest lead these particular types of heat pumps have opened up over conventional furnaces in two decades of data available from the trade association.

Sales for both appliances took a hit last year, but heat pumps continued in the lead when they moved ahead of gas furnaces for the first time in 2022 with 4 million units sold. 

Incentives courtesy of the Inflation Reduction Act will certainly continue to help consumers. The IRA offers tax credits to cover 30% of the upfront costs of heat pumps up to $2,000. Even more generous incentives have yet to take effect. Through the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Act included in the Inflation Reduction Act, households that meet income requirements can qualify for additional rebates of $4,000 or $8,000 for switching from fossil-fueled appliance to heat pumps. Distributing these rebates is up to individual states, which aren’t expected to be implemented until later this year or early-2025. Additional local programs offer even more financial assistance for residential energy-efficiency improvements. 

To meet this potential demand, the Biden administration also announced last November $169 million in federal funds for the domestic heat pump manufacturers to increase capacity to make heat pumps and related components. 

And if that wasn’t enough, governors in 25 states signed a pledge last September to install 20 million heat pumps by 2023. And this year, nine states, California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island, signed an MoI for heat pumps to comprise 65% of home heating sales by 2030 and 90% by 2040.

These states will collaborate to collect market data, track progress and develop a plan within a year to support electrification of residential buildings.

“To achieve our shared decarbonization goals, we need to send an unmistakable signal to the marketplace that zero-emission homes are the future. This agreement does that,” said Matt Rusteika, director of market transformation at the Building Decarbonization Coalition, in a press release.

A few of those states might be surprising since they are in New England and the Northeast where oil heat has long been the primary (and only) source of heat. Even one state not on that list has made significant headway in heat pump sales. Vermont resident have installed more heat pumps per capita than any other state in New England, with 97 heat pumps for every 1,000 residents, according to Efficiency Vermont, a program that promotes energy efficiency throughout the state. Last year, Vermonters put in 11,000 heat pumps.

As far as actual heat pump installations, we sent out a survey last month to PHC News readers to see their perspectives. Generally speaking, almost all respondents said they had installed heat pumps in the past 18 months and most figured on installing more or about the same number of heat pumps over the next 18 months.

Here are the full responses to our survey: