Furnace Rebates in Ontario: What Still Exists

How much you can get

• Straight high-efficiency gas furnace replacement No direct rebate
• Qualifying smart thermostat included in the project $100
• Heat pump added alongside the furnace (hybrid) $500 per ton, up to $2,000
• Attic insulation and drain-water heat recovery See the program page
• Enbridge Home Efficiency Rebate Plus Closed to new applicants

Who qualifies

• There is no furnace-only rebate to be eligible for — the qualifying measures are the thermostat, envelope work, and the heat pump portion of a hybrid system.
• Hybrid projects follow the standard program rules: a listed heat pump, a participating contractor, an eligible property, and the program's occupancy rule.
• A gas-heated home claiming the hybrid rebate is paid at the lower per-ton tier — $500 a ton, $2,000 maximum — since gas is the current heating fuel.
• The federal Greener Homes Loan is closed to new applications, so no part of a furnace budget can rest on it.
• Documentation still matters: itemize the thermostat and the heat pump separately on the invoice.

This is the page we most often end up reading out loud over the phone. Homeowners have heard there is rebate money for HVAC, and there is — just not for the appliance they were planning to buy.

The honest answer: no rebate for a straight furnace swap

Ontario's incentive dollars now go toward reducing fossil fuel use, so a new gas furnace replacing an old gas furnace attracts nothing on its own no matter how efficient it is. That is a policy decision, not an oversight, and no amount of shopping around finds a contractor who can get it for you.

The legacy Enbridge program that once paid on furnaces is also closed to new applicants, so quotes citing it are out of date.

What a furnace project can still claim

• A qualifying smart thermostat installed with the work, at $100.
• Attic insulation and drain-water heat recovery done under the same program, at amounts published on the program page.
• The heat pump portion of a hybrid system, at the per-ton rate for a gas-heated home.
• Nothing at all for the furnace cabinet, the venting, the gas line or the labour to fit them.

Hybrid is the one way a furnace purchase earns heat pump money

If you are buying a furnace anyway and the AC is also near the end of its life, replacing the outdoor unit with a heat pump instead of a new condenser converts a dead-end purchase into a rebate-eligible one. The furnace still handles the coldest nights; the heat pump handles everything else and gives you cooling in summer.

The cost logic works too — replacing heating and cooling together generally runs $7,500–$11,500 and saves roughly a thousand dollars against doing them in separate years, because one crew, one set of sheet-metal transitions and one permit cycle cover both appliances.

What the efficiency upgrade saves without a rebate

A furnace replacement can still pay for itself through fuel use. Moving from a 15-year-old mid-efficiency unit to a modern condensing furnace typically cuts gas consumption by 20 to 25 percent. Published GTA figures put that at $360–$450 a year for a home spending $1,800 annually on gas heat, or $5,400–$6,750 across 15 years.

Note also that Ontario efficiency rules mean a new residential gas furnace is a condensing unit — the old mid-efficiency option is no longer on the table, so the comparison is between efficiency tiers, not between technologies.

Costs a furnace quote should show, rebate or not

• A chimney liner for the water heater when the furnace stops sharing the flue, commonly $400–$900.
• The municipal permit, typically $100–$300 depending on the municipality.
• Removal and disposal of the old unit, worth $150–$400 and usually bundled.
• Electrical work for a variable-speed blower or a new thermostat, $150–$800.
• The installed price itself, which for high-efficiency work generally lands at $4,500–$7,500.

If your furnace is limping and you want to know whether to fix it, replace it, or turn the project into a hybrid, our furnace repair service and the GTA furnace cost guide are the places to start — or ask for a straight assessment and we will tell you which of the three your house is actually facing.

How ZK Mechanical helps

• Say up front that a furnace-only project has no rebate attached, before you build a budget around one.
• Price the hybrid option beside the furnace-only option so you can compare the net numbers yourself.
• Include the chimney liner, permit and electrical work in the written quote rather than raising them later.
• Claim the thermostat where it applies and itemize it correctly.
• Recommend keeping a sound furnace another season when replacing it is not yet the better spend.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Save on Energy — eligible measures under the current program
• Enbridge Gas — status of legacy residential rebates

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