What the heat pump rebate pays in Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie runs on the same provincial Home Renovation Savings Program (HRSP) as the rest of Ontario, and the heat pump tier splits by your current heating fuel. Since most homes here heat with natural gas from Enbridge Gas, most Sault Ste. Marie households land in the lower gas-switching tier — but the rebate jumps considerably if you're currently on electric, oil, propane, or wood heat.
Enbridge Gas customers, air-source
Switching off a gas furnace to a cold-climate air-source heat pump.
Enbridge Gas customers, ground-source
Flat rebate for ground-source systems replacing a gas furnace.
Electric, oil, propane, or wood heat, air-source
Highest air-source tier, for homes not currently on gas.
Electric, oil, propane, or wood heat, ground-source
The largest single rebate on the whole Sault Ste. Marie page.
Pairing with your existing furnace instead of switching?
Sault Ste. Marie is one of four Ontario communities — alongside London, Peterborough, and St. Catharines — covered by an Enbridge Gas Hybrid Heating Pilot, a collaboration with the City and PUC Services Inc. It pairs an air-source heat pump with your existing high-efficiency gas furnace instead of replacing it outright, open to up to 1,000 customers across those four communities combined. We couldn't find a published per-household dollar incentive for this pilot — contact Enbridge Gas or the City to confirm current availability and what it actually pays.
What you'll actually save each month
Since most Sault Ste. Marie homes are switching off Enbridge Gas rather than electric heat, the number that really decides whether this is worth doing is how the new electricity cost stacks up against what you were paying for gas — and that needs real numbers on both sides, not a rough guess.
- Electricity (OEB Regulated Price Plan, Nov 2025–Oct 2026): Sault Ste. Marie Public Utilities bills you, but the rate itself comes from the province. Time-of-use: off-peak 9.8¢/kWh, mid-peak 15.7¢/kWh, on-peak 20.3¢/kWh, averaging 12.8¢/kWh. Tiered: 12.0¢/kWh up to the monthly threshold, then 14.2¢/kWh. (See the OEB rate report →)
- Natural gas (Enbridge Gas): what you're currently paying Enbridge depends on the quarter and your delivery zone, and it moves too often for one number to stay accurate for long — pull your own current rate before running the comparison. (Check Enbridge's current rate →)
A qualifying cold-climate air-source heat pump moves roughly 2.5–3.5 units of heat per unit of electricity it uses — its coefficient of performance — which is why full electric conversion can still come out ahead of gas even in a city this far north. Sault Ste. Marie's -30.5°C coldest night on record does push toward the edge of that rated efficiency, which is also exactly why the hybrid pilot pairing a heat pump with your existing furnace exists as an option here.
Get your own real payback number: our free assessment tool uses your current bill and system, not a provincial average.
How to claim it
- Complete the eligibility form on the Save on Energy portal
- Select a participating HVAC contractor
- Get mandatory pre-installation approval before work starts
- Installation is completed
- Contractor submits the post-installation application
- Rebate cheque arrives within 60 days of approval
Finding a heat pump installer in Sault Ste. Marie
We're still building our verified installer network in Sault Ste. Marie. In the meantime, browse our full directory of vetted installers across Ontario — you can filter by category and get quotes without a sales call.
Browse the Ontario installer directory →
Common questions
How much does a heat pump rebate cover in Sault Ste. Marie?
It depends on the heat pump type and your current fuel. Enbridge Gas customers switching from gas get up to $2,000 for an air-source unit or $3,000 for ground-source. Households switching from electricity, oil, propane, or wood get up to $7,500 for air-source or up to $12,000 for ground-source. This is the same provincial HRSP structure as the rest of Ontario.
Is there a local program on top of the provincial rebate?
Sault Ste. Marie has no municipal heat pump rebate of its own, but it is one of four Ontario communities covered by an Enbridge Gas Hybrid Heating Pilot that pairs a heat pump with your existing gas furnace instead of a full swap. No specific per-household dollar incentive has been published for that pilot — contact Enbridge Gas or the City directly to check availability.
A public utility built for one city
Sault Ste. Marie Public Utilities is exactly what its name says: a public utility serving this one city, not a regional conglomerate covering a dozen municipalities like some of the utilities further south in this province. The rebate amounts above are provincial and don't change based on who bills your electricity, but a smaller, single-city utility like this one often means a shorter chain of contacts for things like panel-capacity sign-off. We haven't found an SSMPUC-specific heat pump incentive layered on the provincial program.
Sault Ste. Marie's winters are genuinely northern
This is where Ontario's climate starts to look different from the GTA pages elsewhere on this site. Over 2015-2024, Sault Ste. Marie's average January low was -11.5°C, and the coldest night recorded in that stretch hit -30.5°C — colder than most of southern Ontario sees in a typical winter. A cold-climate heat pump, the kind required for this rebate, is rated to keep pulling heat efficiently down to around -25°C, so a night like that coldest one on record pushes toward the edge of what the equipment is built for, even if it holds up comfortably on an average night.
Next steps
View all Sault Ste. Marie rebate programs → or check the official Home Renovation Savings Program site → for the current source of truth.