Colorado Heat Pump Rebate Programs, and What Each One Pays

Free. No in-home sales visit. Takes about 15 minutes in the Zero Homes app.

Below is every program we currently file for, what it pays, what has closed, and what's about to change. Amounts and eligibility come down to your address, your utility, your income, and the equipment your house actually needs. Everything on this page is current as of August 21, 2026.

Changing October 1, 2026: Xcel's heat pump rebate steps down

Xcel is reducing its heat pump bonus from 3x to 2x the standard rebate on October 1, 2026. Cold-climate heat pumps drop from $2,250 to $1,500 per heating ton. To keep the higher amount, your system has to be installed and invoiced before October 1, with the application submitted by October 15. Read what's changing and which deadline applies to you.

Rebates at a glance

Amounts and availability change, sometimes with short notice, as HEAR closing in April and the October 1 Xcel change both show. We keep this page current because a rebate page with a stale number costs a homeowner real money.

Your utility: Xcel Energy

Xcel's heat pump rebate is the largest single layer for most Front Range homes, and it's paid per ton of capacity rather than as a flat amount. That's why the same rebate is worth about $4,500 to one house and about $9,000 to another. Bigger houses need more capacity.

Three things determine whether you get it:

• Active Xcel gas or gas and electric service at the home. Electric-only accounts follow different rules.

• Qualifying equipment, with cold-climate rated systems (heat pumps engineered to keep producing heat at low outdoor temperatures) paid at a higher tier than standard heat pumps.

• A participating contractor who submits the application for you. Homeowners can't file this one alone.

The step-down on October 1, 2026 is the near-term thing to know. Our breakdown of the Xcel rebate change covers both deadlines and what a typical home stands to lose by waiting. For the program's full requirements, see our Xcel Energy heat pump rebate guide.

The state layer

Colorado runs a statewide heat pump incentive that applies on top of your utility's rebate. In 2026 it's $1,000 for an air source heat pump, $2,000 for a ground source system, and $250 for a heat pump water heater.

The mechanism is worth understanding, because it isn't a form you file. A contractor registered with the state claims the incentive and is required to pass at least a third of it through to you as a discount on your invoice. You don't submit paperwork and you don't wait for a check. Two practical consequences: your installer has to be registered for you to get anything, and the amount that reaches you depends on how much of it that installer passes through. We pass it through in full and show it as a line on your quote.

This layer has stepped down every year: $1,500 for an air source system in 2024, $1,250 in 2025, $1,000 in 2026, with the Colorado Energy Office scheduling another reduction for 2029. It's worth knowing if you're weighing the value of waiting.

If you're on a rural electric co-op

Outside Xcel territory, your co-op likely runs its own heat pump program, with its own amounts, equipment rules, and funding cycles. We file these the same way we file Xcel's. Guides for the ones we work in most:

• Mountain View Electric Association (MVEA)

• San Luis Valley REC

We also work in La Plata Electric Association and Gunnison County Electric Association territory. If you're a member of either, we'll check your co-op's current program as part of your quote.

City, county, and neighborhood programs

These are the layer homeowners most often don't know exists, because they change by address and rarely get advertised.

The big one right now is Power Ahead Colorado, a Denver Regional Council of Governments program that launched on July 23, 2026 and pays $1,500 for a heat pump with no income limit. It's backed by $40 million over four years, requires an ENERGY STAR certified cold-climate system, and has to be installed by a contractor verified for the program. It replaced Denver CARe, which closed in May 2025 after its funds were claimed.

Our Denver heat pump rebates guide covers the metro programs in more detail.

Federal programs, and what changed

Through the first part of 2026, income-qualified Colorado households could apply for federal HEAR funding, which paid up to $8,000 toward a cold-climate heat pump and covered the full project cost for households below 80% of area median income.

That program is now closed. Front Range funding (Region 1) was fully reserved on April 28, 2026, and the Colorado Energy Office has confirmed that applications for the rest of the state submitted after August 1, 2026 will not be reviewed.

We're saying this plainly because a lot of pages still list HEAR as available, and a homeowner planning around $8,000 that isn't there is going to be disappointed at exactly the wrong moment. If you were counting on HEAR, the practical answer is that the utility, state, and local layers are what's left, and they still add up to a meaningful share of a project. We'll show you the real number for your address.

How the layers stack

Rebates stack, but not infinitely, and not identically for every house. Three rules govern how it actually works:

1. Per-ton programs scale with your house. Your system size is set by an engineering calculation on your actual home, not by square footage rules of thumb, so your rebate total isn't knowable until the design is done.

2. Some programs cap at a share of project cost, and some exclude each other. Stacking can be limited by rules that prevent incentives from exceeding what the project cost, and two federally funded programs generally can't be combined on the same measure.

3. Timing is part of eligibility. Programs have funding cycles, deadlines, and step-downs. HEAR running out in April and Xcel stepping down on October 1 are both examples from this year alone.

This is why we don't publish a single “you'll save $X” number. The honest version is a quote for your house with the programs you actually qualify for already applied, which is what we give you.

What we do, and what you do

You don't file any of this.

Zero Homes handles: checking every program at your address and income, designing the system your house needs, ordering equipment, selecting and managing the installing crew, and submitting every rebate application end to end.

You handle: running the home scan from your phone, approving the design and the price, and picking an install date.

Qualifying rebates are applied to the price you see, not reimbursed to you months later, and projects start at $0 down with financing. See how financing works.

Outside Colorado

We also serve Minnesota, Illinois, and Massachusetts, each with its own utility and state programs. The programs on this page are Colorado-specific, but the process is the same everywhere we work: we check every program at your address and file what you qualify for. Start with a quote and we'll show you what's available where you live.

Sources

• Colorado Energy Office, heat pump incentive amounts and the contractor pass-through requirement

• Colorado Energy Office, home energy rebates and HEAR program status

• Denver Regional Council of Governments, Power Ahead Colorado

• Xcel Energy, Programs and Rebates. The October 1, 2026 change comes from Xcel's August 5, 2026 trade-partner notice.