How to Get Furnace Rebates in British Columbia and Which Programs Are Available

The most talked-about furnace rebate in British Columbia over the past two years was FortisBC’s dual fuel heating system incentive, a program that paired an electric heat pump with a high-efficiency gas furnace and, at its peak, paid out as much as $18,000 to income-qualified households in the north. Search for it today and FortisBC’s own rebate detail page returns a single line: that rebate is unavailable. Plenty of contractor websites and rebate round-ups published earlier this year still describe it as active. It isn’t.

As of 2026, British Columbia’s furnace-related incentives run through three separate channels: FortisBC’s fuel-switching rebates for households moving off oil or propane, the income-tested CleanBC Energy Savings Program for heat pump conversions, and BC Hydro’s standard Home Renovation Rebate for electric-heated homes. No current program pays a straightforward rebate for swapping one old gas furnace for a newer, more efficient gas furnace unless that swap comes bundled with a fuel or heating-system change. Which of these actually applies depends heavily on what’s heating the home right now.

What Kind of Furnace You Have Decides Everything

Furnace rebates in this province aren’t organized around “furnace” as a category the way a rebate for windows or insulation is. They’re organized around the fuel switch involved, and a household needs to identify which of four situations it’s actually in before any specific dollar figure becomes relevant.

A home already on natural gas that wants to keep using gas but upgrade to a newer furnace has almost no dedicated rebate available, aside from a modest maintenance incentive covered further down. A home moving from oil or propane onto natural gas for the first time has a useful FortisBC program built specifically for that transition. A home currently heated by electric baseboards or an electric furnace looking to install a heat pump has access to the broadest set of options, through both CleanBC and BC Hydro. And a home on gas, oil, or propane looking to switch to a heat pump has options that scale dramatically based on income and, in one specific case, geography.

The Rebate That Disappeared

Before going further, it’s worth being direct about the program that no longer exists, since so much of what’s written about BC furnace incentives online still assumes it does. FortisBC’s dual fuel heating system rebate combined a central ducted heat pump with a new high-efficiency gas furnace, using the heat pump for most of the year and switching to gas only below a set outdoor temperature. When it launched in mid-2024, the standard rebate paid $10,000, with income-qualified households eligible for $15,000 and an additional $3,000 available to households in or north of 100 Mile House.

Demand outpaced the program’s funding. By May 2025, FortisBC had cut the standard rebate to $5,000, and the income-qualified $15,000 tier stopped accepting new participants for the rest of that year entirely. FortisBC’s own program page for the standard dual fuel rebate now redirects to a notice stating the rebate is unavailable, and the same is true of the income-qualified version. Anyone who has a ten-year-old gas furnace and was planning around a five-figure dual fuel rebate needs a different plan. This is the single most expensive assumption to get wrong when budgeting a furnace replacement in this province right now.

Moving Off Oil or Propane Onto Natural Gas

For a household currently heating with oil or propane and switching to natural gas for the first time, FortisBC’s Connect to Gas program is the most direct rebate available. Installing an eligible ENERGY STAR high-efficiency natural gas furnace, boiler, or combination heating and hot water system pays up to $3,800, made up of a $2,800 base rebate plus a $1,000 bonus. That bonus isn’t automatic. A household needs to obtain a pre-qualification code before December 31, 2026, and complete installation before March 31, 2027, to claim it. Installing a natural gas fireplace at the same time adds another $250.

The eligibility requirement that trips people up here is the word “new.” This program is built for households requesting a brand-new FortisBC gas service line, not for existing gas customers replacing an aging furnace with a newer one. Someone who has had gas service for a decade and simply wants a more efficient furnace doesn’t qualify for Connect to Gas rebates, regardless of how old their current unit is.

For homes too small or oddly shaped for central ducted heating, FortisBC’s natural gas wall furnace rebate covers a direct vent wall furnace, the kind often used to heat a garage, a basement, or a laneway home where running ductwork isn’t practical. That rebate reaches up to $1,200 including a $200 bonus, on the same December 31, 2026 pre-qualification deadline and March 31, 2027 installation window. New construction doesn’t qualify for either the wall furnace or the space heating version of this program, and neither does a wall furnace installed somewhere other than a primary living space.

Keeping the Gas Furnace You Already Have

This is the gap most homeowners don’t expect. If a household is already a FortisBC gas customer and wants nothing more than a newer, more efficient furnace to replace an old one, without switching fuels and without adding a heat pump, there’s no significant rebate for that specific scenario. The closest thing available is FortisBC’s appliance maintenance rebate, which pays up to $150 when a licensed gas contractor services a furnace or boiler, one tankless water heater, and up to two fireplaces. That’s a maintenance incentive meant to extend the life of an existing system, not a replacement subsidy, and the application has to go in within 60 days of the service date.

Put plainly, BC’s rebate structure is built to reward switching away from a fossil fuel furnace, not upgrading to a newer version of the same thing. A homeowner whose 18-year-old gas furnace finally dies has more financial incentive, at least from provincial and utility programs, to look at a heat pump than at a like-for-like gas replacement.

Replacing an Electric Furnace or Baseboards With a Heat Pump

Electric-heated homes, whether that’s a forced-air electric furnace, baseboards, or radiant heating, have the most straightforward path of any category here. Under CleanBC’s Home Renovation Rebate, available regardless of income, a heat pump conversion pays up to $4,000.

Households that meet the income thresholds for the CleanBC Energy Savings Program do considerably better. The same conversion pays up to $13,000 for a ground-oriented home, more than triple the standard amount, provided the household falls into the right income tier for its size.

The Income Test That Decides Which Number Applies

Qualification depends on household size, combined pre-tax income of the adults living there, and the home’s assessed value, which is capped at $1,230,000 for the two lower income tiers. The current thresholds break down as follows.

People in the Home	Level 1 Maximum Income	Level 2 Maximum Income	Level 3 Maximum Income*
1	$51,100	$63,900	$102,100
2	$63,600	$79,500	$127,200
3	$78,200	$97,700	$156,300
4	$94,900	$118,600	$189,800
5	$107,600	$134,500	$215,200
6	$121,400	$151,700	$242,700
7 or more	$135,100	$168,900	$270,200

*Level 3 only applies when the furnace being replaced runs on natural gas, propane, or oil, not electricity.

That last note matters specifically for this article. A household on electric heating only qualifies for the higher ESP amounts at Level 1 or Level 2. A household coming off a gas, oil, or propane furnace has access to the wider Level 3 band as well, which is why the income cutoffs feel more generous for fossil-fuel conversions than for electric-to-electric upgrades.

If the Home Sits North of 100 Mile House, the Math Changes

Geography adds one more wrinkle worth knowing about. Homes located in or north of the District of 100 Mile House (roughly latitude 51.628°N) can access any-income heat pump rebates for furnaces currently running on oil or on natural gas or propane, something not available anywhere else in the province outside the income-qualified programs. In that northern region, an oil furnace conversion pays up to $6,000 and a natural gas or propane furnace conversion pays up to $8,000, with no income test attached.

A household just south of that boundary heating with oil has no equivalent any-income option and has to qualify for ESP to get comparable support. It’s a real geographic split, not a typo or a regional pilot that will eventually roll out province-wide. The Province has kept the higher latitude threshold specifically because homes that far north face a heating season and climate that make electrification a harder sell without extra support.

Furnace Rebates for Condos and Apartments

A condo or apartment unit with its own electric heating system isn’t shut out of this either. BC Hydro’s Condo and Apartment Rebate Program pays up to $2,250 for replacing in-suite electric heating with a heat pump, regardless of income, broken down as $1,000 for a single-head system or $750 per head on a multi-split system up to three heads. Income-qualified residents of the same building type can apply to ESP’s condo and apartment stream instead for up to $5,000 on the same upgrade, more than double the BC Hydro amount. Either route typically needs strata or landlord sign-off before work begins, which is worth confirming with a building’s council well ahead of booking a contractor.

Why AFUE Shows Up in Every Eligibility Page

Anyone reading the fine print on these programs will run into AFUE, short for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency, a measurement of how much of the fuel a furnace burns actually converts to usable heat versus how much escapes as exhaust. FortisBC’s eligible product requirements specify a minimum of 95 percent AFUE for a qualifying natural gas furnace and 94 percent for a qualifying combination boiler system. A furnace rated below that threshold, even a brand-new one, won’t clear the eligibility bar for any of these rebates.

This number is worth checking before signing a contract, not after. A contractor quoting an 80 or 90 percent AFUE furnace as an upgrade might be quoting an entirely reasonable, code-compliant product, just not one that will ever qualify for a FortisBC rebate. The rebate-eligible product list on each program’s page is the only reliable way to confirm a specific model actually clears the bar.

Where the Federal Piece of This Went

Older articles and some 2026 contractor marketing still mention a federal Canada Greener Homes Grant that could stack on top of these provincial and utility rebates for an even bigger total. That program closed to new applicants in February 2024, and the final administrative deadline for existing applicants passed at the end of 2025. A furnace replacement budgeted today is working with BC’s own programs alone, not the federal layer that used to sit underneath them. That’s a smaller combined total than the figures still circulating from a couple of years ago, and it’s worth adjusting expectations accordingly rather than discovering the gap partway through a renovation.

British Columbia isn’t unique in running its own income-qualified structure separate from federal programs. Manitoba residents comparing notes with a BC household will recognize a similar shape in Manitoba Hydro’s affordable energy program and in the rebate categories run through Efficiency Manitoba, even though the specific dollar amounts and eligibility rules differ by province.

Mistakes Worth Avoiding

A few patterns show up repeatedly in how people approach this. Assuming the dual fuel rebate is still available, discussed above, is the costliest one. A close second is a household discovering, after installation, that CleanBC’s Energy Savings Program required pre-registration and a code before any equipment was purchased. ESP simply won’t rebate a system installed before that code was issued, no matter how well it matches the eligibility criteria on paper. A third is assuming a self-installed furnace or heat pump qualifies for anything at all. Every program covered here, without exception, requires installation by a licensed contractor registered with the relevant program, and DIY installations are excluded outright.

Before You Call a Contractor

The order of operations matters more than the paperwork itself. Confirm the current heating fuel and whether the home sits north or south of the 100 Mile House line, check household income against the table above before assuming eligibility one way or the other, and only then start collecting contractor quotes. A household that gets quotes first and checks ESP eligibility afterward risks having already missed the pre-registration window that the income-qualified rebate requires.

It’s also worth having cash on hand before any of this starts. Every program described here reimburses after installation and payment, not before, so an emergency fund or renovation savings cushion matters just as much as knowing which rebate applies. A furnace that fails in January doesn’t wait for a rebate application to clear, and the broader cost pressures BC households are managing right now make that upfront gap harder to absorb than it might have been a few years ago. Checking how BC’s utility costs compare with the rest of the country is a reasonable way to gauge how much a given upgrade is actually likely to save over time, separate from the rebate itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a used or refurbished furnace qualify for any of these rebates? No. Every program covered here requires new equipment, purchased and installed by a registered contractor. A refurbished or previously installed unit, even one meeting the AFUE requirement, doesn’t qualify.

Can you get a rebate for repairing an existing furnace instead of replacing it? Only the FortisBC appliance maintenance rebate applies to servicing rather than replacement, and it’s capped at $150 combined across a furnace or boiler, one water heater, and up to two fireplaces. There’s no rebate specifically for major furnace repairs short of full replacement.

If a contractor offers to handle the rebate application, does that change what’s available? No. A contractor submitting paperwork on a customer’s behalf doesn’t change the rebate amount or program a household qualifies for. The eligibility rules, deadlines, and dollar figures are set by FortisBC, BC Hydro, and the Province regardless of who fills out the form, so it’s still worth confirming the numbers directly against the program pages rather than taking a contractor’s summary at face value.

Does the appliance maintenance rebate work for an oil furnace? No. FortisBC’s appliance maintenance rebate is limited to gas appliances serviced by a licensed gas contractor. An oil furnace falls outside that program entirely, and there’s currently no dedicated maintenance-only rebate for oil heating systems in BC.