Residential building electrification is essential for decreasing residential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with climate targets while improving residents’ health and safety. Highly-efficient electric heat pumps for home heating and cooling (i.e., air-source or ground-source heat pumps [ASHPs or GSHPs]) and water heating (i.e., heat pump water heaters [HPWHs]) are critical solutions to scale since over 95% of in-home GHG emissions come from these end uses. While there are other synergistic solutions — like weatherization, rooftop solar, and induction cooking — this guide focuses on scaling heat pump deployment.

Local governments have a significant opportunity to support residential heat pump deployment as federal and state governments roll out billions of dollars in new heat pump incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Cities and counties can ensure their constituents take full advantage of these incentives by launching an “Electrify” program.  This guide provides local government staff, community-based organizations (CBOs), and other local stakeholders an equitable process for designing and implementing successful Electrify programs with the following five elements:

  1. Strong partnerships and clear goals: Electrify programs bring key stakeholders and partners together, especially frontline CBOs, local government, utility companies, and technical entities, to develop a program structure and goals that address the community’s priorities.
  2. Contractor engagement: Electrify programs can expand the number of qualified contractors installing and recommending heat pumps by incentivizing their participation in the Electrify program’s — or an existing state or utility electrification program’s — qualified contractor list.
  3. Incentives and financing: Electrify programs can reduce heat pump up-front cost barriers by streamlining participation in existing incentive programs, providing additional income-based incentives, offering affordable and accessible financing, and leveraging qualified contractor lists to help residents find the best value project.
  4. Community outreach and education: Electrify programs can increase heat pump interest among residents by partnering with trusted messengers — particularly those working in frontline communities — to communicate benefits tailored to audience priorities, providing engaging educational events, and simplifying the installation process.
  5. Program implementation: Electrify programs pull all these pieces together with a launch event, ongoing support networks that can include technical advisor and program ambassadors, and ongoing program impact tracking and adjustments.

The guidance and resources provided here stem from RMI’s support of 12 Electrify programs across the United States from 2022 through 2023.

More About this Resource

Date: November 22, 2024

Type: Guide, Toolkit

Countries: None

States: None