Nova Scotia Electrical & Heat Pump Rebates in 2026

What is still open

Two Efficiency Nova Scotia programs are accepting homeowners, plus a no-charge one for lower-income households.

Home Energy Assessment. An assessment of how your house actually uses energy, which then unlocks rebates on the upgrades it recommends. Efficiency Nova Scotia’s programme page puts the assessment fee at $199, waived for households meeting their income threshold, and says you may qualify for rebates of up to $5,000 toward recommended upgrades and eligible products. The house has to be at least six months old and the renovations must not have started yet, which is the detail most people find out too late.

Moderate Income Rebate. Additional rebates for households under an income limit whose home is primarily heated by something other than electricity. Wood stoves do not count as a primary heating source. The income limits are calculated by subtracting line 43500 from line 23600 on your Notice of Assessment:

• 1 person: $37,260
• 2 people: $77,050
• 3 people: $98,900
• 4 people: $120,750
• 5 or more: $126,500

Worth reading their own notice before you plan around it: the programme page now carries a section on changes to the Moderate Income Rebate, including reduced rebate amounts. We are not quoting a figure here for that reason. Ask them what it is this week.

HomeWarming. For lower-income homeowners, this one covers the installation rather than rebating it, and arranges the contractors. Its income limits are lower and are based on Statistics Canada’s after-tax Low Income Cut-Off, reviewed each spring: $30,187 for one person, $57,075 for two to four, and $79,163 for five or more.

What has closed

Oil to Heat Pump Affordability closed on 2 July 2026. This is the one homeowners still ask about most, because it was the large one. Efficiency Nova Scotia’s own page now reads that available funding has been allocated and the programme is closed to new applicants. Anyone already applied, or on the standby list, is still reviewed if further funding appears, and they are explicit that a place on that list does not guarantee anything.

Home Heating System Rebates closed on 31 December 2025. Their page states it plainly and points people at the Home Energy Assessment and Moderate Income Rebate instead. If you have found a page listing heat pump rebate amounts under this programme, it is out of date.

What no programme in Nova Scotia pays for

This is the part worth reading if you are budgeting a job, because it is where people get caught.

There is no rebate for an electrical panel upgrade. Not for a fuse box change, not for going from 60 or 100 amps to 200. Efficiency Nova Scotia funds heating systems, insulation, air sealing and efficient products. A panel is none of those, even when a panel is the only reason the efficient thing is possible.

That matters because of the order things happen in. A heat pump may attract a rebate. If your service cannot carry the heat pump, the upgrade that makes it possible is entirely yours to pay for, and on an older house it is not a small line. The load calculation is what tells you which situation you are in, and it is worth doing before you have committed to equipment rather than after.

There is no home EV charger rebate we can find. Efficiency Nova Scotia lists no charger programme. Several blog posts still repeat a $500 Efficiency Nova Scotia charger rebate; it is not on their programmes list. Federal EV money that does exist is for buying the vehicle, not for the charger, the circuit or the panel work behind it.

No programme pays for the electrician. The rebates are on equipment and efficiency upgrades. Wiring, circuits, disconnects and panel capacity sit outside all of them.

Where this leaves a Dartmouth or Halifax homeowner

If you are heating with oil and thinking about a heat pump, the large programme has closed and the realistic paths now are a Home Energy Assessment, and the Moderate Income Rebate or HomeWarming if your household qualifies. Start with Efficiency Nova Scotia directly on 1-877-999-6035, because they administer all of it and we do not.

What Jamie can tell you is the part they cannot: whether your panel and your service can actually carry what you are planning, what it would take if they cannot, and in what order to do it so you are not paying to open the same wall twice.

How current this is

Every programme above was read on Efficiency Nova Scotia’s own pages on 24 September 2026, not taken from a summary. Rebate programmes change without much notice, and two of the ones on this page closed in the last twelve months, so check the official page before you rely on anything here. We will re-check this page and change the date at the top when we do.