Heat Pump Financial Assistance for Lower Income Homeowners
If you are looking for the Sitka CHIP program page, click HERE!
Alaska Heat Smart’s Clean Heat Incentive Program (CHIP) is courtesy of Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski. A $525,000 ‘congressionally-directed spending’ package, overseen by the U.S. Department of Energy, will fund nearly 200 heat pump incentives. This homeowner assistance will enable lower income family homeowners make the increasingly popular and money-saving switch to local and super-efficient air source heat pump heating.
Our Clean Heat Incentive Program will do the following for qualified homeowners:
- Reduce dependence on and exposure to fossil fuels and carbon monoxide, and reduce the risk of fuel spills and contamination
- Improve and upgrade home heating while lowering home heating costs
- Help finance the purchase and installation costs of an air source heat pump for your home
- Provide between $2,000 and $3,000 towards purchase and installation costs, in accordance with a sliding scale dependent upon overall household income
- Allow you to apply for True North Federal Credit Union’s low interest heat pump loan in order to cover remaining project expenses
Our Clean Heat Incentive Program will not:
- Help finance the purchase of an electric vehicle. This is a home heating incentive program only.
- Prohibit you from receiving a heat pump tax credit of up to $2,000 on your federal tax return
Eligibility Requirements:
A successful applicant must:
- Complete an Alaska Heat Smart home energy assessment
- Have a combined household income that does not exceed 100% of Juneau’s median area income (see table below)
- Provide all required application documentation (see ‘required supporting information’ below)
- Apply an incentive award to the first heat pump in the residence
- Install a heat pump that meets cold climate standards and is one of the following models: Daikin Aurora, Daikin Atmosphera, Mitsubishi ‘Hyper Heating’ M or P series, Fujitsu ‘LZAH’ or ‘RLX’ series, or other cold climate unit
- Abide by the project requirements set forth by Alaska’s State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO). These include avoiding placement of a heat pump compressor or lineset on the front of the home, as well as ensuring that the compressor is ground mounted and not wall mounted. Both the homeowner and Alaska Heat Smart will need to address these issues with your contractor prior to installation. For homes built before 1978 and where an installation may be unable to avoid a ‘front of the home’ placement or exterior wall mount, AHS will need to submit a special SHPO review to determine if any potential impacts to historical values may be present. This needs to happen before any installation work begins!
| Family Size | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 100% MAI Income | $84,625 | $96,750 | $108,800 | $120,800 | $130,500 | $140,200 |
Required Application Support Information:
- Please do not email personal income files to Alaska Heat Smart. You will be provided a secure portal link to share with us the following documents:
- Application form, fully completed, ‘signed’ by the homeowner or applicant
- Legal ID for household members 17 and over
- One (1) most recent checking/saving bank statement for each account held in the household by those 18 and over
- One (1) month of most recent paycheck stubs for all jobs held in the previous year (all wage earners 18 or over)
- Two (2) years of most recent federal tax returns, if self employed
- Income statements from PERS, TRS, deferred compensation, 401k accounts, or other retirement holdings (if applicable)
- Current social security/disability award letter (if applicable)
- Current pension/annuity letters (if applicable)
- Proof of school registration, for children attending college who reside in the home when not at school (if applicable)
- Court-ordered child support statement (if applicable)
- Unemployment income (if applicable)
How the Incentive Program Works:
This is an incentive program, not a rebate program. This works to your advantage in that you do not need money on hand to cover your total project cost in order to proceed with adding a heat pump to your home. Once you have completed an Alaska Heat Smart home energy assessment and have been approved for an incentive, you may seek out project quotes from local contractors. Some, but not all, are listed on our website. Licensing and other issues dictate who we are able to list. Once your contractor decision is made, inform AHS by email. You’ll need to provide your contractor with any required down payment. When your project is complete, and we have a completed W9 tax form from you, and we have received the contractor’s final invoice and confirmation of job completion (photos and contractor email), we will provide you with your incentive award allowing you to complete final project payment.
Federal Tax Implications & the Inflation Reduction Act:
CHIP incentive payments are subject to federal taxes. BUT, read on! The Inflation Reduction Act provides a heat pump tax credit of 30% of the cost of the installation, electrical work, and labor, up to a cap of $2,000. So, if you receive a $2,000 incentive from the AHS CHIP program, and you fall into a 22% tax bracket, you will need to count the incentive as income adding $440 to your tax liability. If your heat pump project total out of pocket expenses, after incentive, is $6,000, you can deduct $1,800 from your tax liability.
In summary, between the two programs, you receive $2,000, and save $1,800 on your taxes, for a net gain of $3,800. Your tax liability increased by $440 so all told, you are ahead by a total of $3,360.
AHS will need a signed W9 tax form from you in order to to pay out your incentive reward. When your project is underway, we’ll send you a blank W9 and a secure file upload link for returning your W9. AHS is not responsible for late payments due to tardy receipt of W9 forms or other program documentation requirements. We will do our very best to process incentive payments within 14 business days from the time we receive your W9 and contractor confirmation of completed work.
Click here to read about how the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation has dealt with the issue of incentive or ‘rebate’ taxation.
Additional Financial Assistance:
True North Federal Credit Union, the Tongass Federal Credit Union, and Alaska Heat Smart have joined together and to create low-interest heat pump loans, with interest rates between 4% and 5.5%. With your AHS home heat pump assessment report and a successful loan application, your after-incentive project balance can be covered by this loan. A $7,500 loan at 4% paid back over 5 years costs only $16 each month in interest payments. This payment will be much less than the average monthly savings you’ll realize from the addition of a heat pump to your home!
If you are unable to apply online, you can call us at 907-957-2943 and we will help you complete an application over the phone.
You can use your personal secure portal link to send us application support materials or you can mail hard copies of your required documentation to: Alaska Heat Smart – CHIP, P.O. Box 20912, Juneau, Alaska 99802