Heat Pumps Save

Residential Heat Pumps Save Energy and Money

Qualifications for the Residential Energy Conservation Program

OPPD offers energy credit refunds to customers through the Residential Energy Conservation Program. The program is available to any OPPD customer who:

Purchases and installs a new high-efficiency heat pump(s) in a new residential structure.
Replaces their existing standard air conditioner with a heat pump and is using natural gas or propane for supplemental heating.
Installs accepted indoor/outdoor thermostats with outdoor thermostat set at 20 degrees F or lower.

Please note: Existing all-electric homeowners who replace their standard A/C with a heat pump qualify for the lower winter electric rate only (no refund).

Qualifying equipment includes new electric heat pumps equal to or greater than 10 SEER¹. This equipment must be inspected by OPPD before acceptance in the program. Determination of equipment qualification for the Residential Energy Conservation Program (RECP) will be at the sole discretion of OPPD. Heat gain/loss calculations should be performed on the structure where the heat pump will be installed.

Please note: Not all heat pumps qualify for this program. To determine which heat pumps qualify, call your heating contractor or OPPD's HVAC Technology Department at (402) 636-3753 or 1-800-648-2658.

Energy Credits Refund

For high-efficiency electric heat pumps with a SEER rating of 10 or greater:

$250 per unit larger than 1.5 tons for qualifying single family structures

$150 per unit larger than 1.5 tons for qualifying multi-family structures.

$75 per unit for any heat pumps 1.5 tons and smaller

Energy Conservation Rate

A special Energy Conservation Rate is available for those customers with installed heat pumps of 10 SEER or greater. The Energy Conservation Rate (residential rate 115) is the same as the standard residential rate except for a lower last rate block during the winter billing period (October through May). The RECP rebate application also serves as an application for the Energy Conservation Rate. To qualify, the electric heat pump must supply at least 50 percent of the space conditioning requirements for the structure and have an outdoor thermostat setting of 20° F or lower.

Heat Pump Operating Costs

To download an 83 KB Excel file that will enable you to calculate the savings a heat pump can bring to a home like yours, click here. (If you don't have Excel software, you can download a free version from Microsoft to view the file.) The figures used in the Excel file are based on the Omaha area, with electric rates from OPPD and gas rates from utilities in OPPD's service territory.

Commercial Heat Pumps

OPPD offers a heat pump program for our Commercial customers, too. To learn more, please visit our Commercial Heat Pump Program web pages.

¹SEER - Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio - A unit of measurement for the efficiency of the equipment. The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) have established SEER or EER ratings for all heating and cooling units. This rating can be found in the Directory of Certified Unitary Air Conditioners and Air-Source Heat Pumps, and the Directory of Certified Applied Air-Conditioning Products, published by the ARI, ARI.