Ductless Rebates (Podcast)

In this podcast, John Maher talks with Tim Schofield and Matt Torre of Jones Services. They chat about the different rebates available for New York homeowners who install ductless systems. Then, they explain how Jones Services helps clients apply for rebates to ensure they get maximum value when they upgrade to a ductless system.

John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher. I’m here today with Tim Schofield and Matt Torre of Jones Services, a service company in Goshen, New York with a focus on Mitsubishi heating and cooling systems. And today we’re talking about ductless rebates. Tim and Matt, welcome.

Tim Schofield: John. Thanks for having us.

Matt Torre: Hey, John. Nice to talk again.

Rebates for Ductless Systems in New York

John: Absolutely. So guys, what rebates are available for ductless systems or sometimes called air source heat pump systems in your area of New York?

Tim: Yeah, John, the rebates, it’s a really cool thing right now and New York has some of the best rebates in the country and it’s a great way for homeowners to take advantage of some free money to improve the overall energy efficiency of their house. Now in New York, they’re basing it with whoever your utility company is. So your utility company will have a formula based on the amount of BTUs the house needs on certain degree days. And then that will dictate the value of the rebate based on how much heat and cooling your house actually needs.

How Do Homeowners Qualify for Rebates?

John: Okay. And so what does a homeowner have to do to qualify for those rebates and how do they figure that out?

Tim: So you hit that on the head, you have to be the homeowner. You have to have a utility company. We work pretty much with New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG), Orange & Rockland, and Central Hudson Gas and Electric. Then that allows us to come up with the amount of the rebate based on the design of the system. And then as long as that system design meets the rebate program, that money gets put back in your pocket,

System Requirements for Heat Pump Rebates

John: Does the system have to be like a certain style? Does it have to be a whole home ductless heating and cooling system where it’s completely replacing the heating system that’s currently in the house, or there’s such a thing as an integrated system where you have the ductless system and the traditional heating system, and they sort of work together with different temperatures and they cut back and forth between them. Or can you get rebates for just installing a ductless system in just a couple of rooms or, how does that all work?

Tim: Yeah, well, the rebates… one of our biggest utilities in our Orange County, Ulster County area is Orange & Rockland. And what they did is they have a tiered system. So if you just want to do one room in your house, and it’s a basic heat pump, maybe a Mitsubishi ductless, it’s a very small rebate of a few hundred dollars. If you go ahead and do the entire house with the Mitsubishi heat pumps, the rebate will go to a sliding scale based on the amount of BTUs the house needs, which will be significantly more. However, you do have to do the whole house.

They have an even higher rebate value for people that want to do what are called integrated controls. And what that means is it takes your new Mitsubishi, whole house heat pump, and it almost talks to your existing oil boiler gas boiler, forced hot air furnace. And it will always try to run the heat pumps first because they’re the most energy efficient way to put heat into the house. And then if that heat pump’s not keeping up or it’s running for too long, it has the ability to turn on that backup heating system, which can be your fuel oil, your propane, or your natural gas.

Now for that, they do give a higher rebate amount, because they’re encouraging people to really take advantage of the green heat pumps to put the BTUs in the house. Now that being said, the big rebate is if you’re going to actually remove your existing oil, gas heating system and put in a Mitsubishi heat pump as your permanent heat source. That will get you the largest amount of rebate dollars from your utility company.

Do Heat Pumps Work in Very Cold Temperatures?

John: I know that a lot of people might be nervous to get rid of their traditional heating system and just put in a heat pump system in their house, because they’re thinking, well, what if it gets really cold in the wintertime? Can you just talk briefly about the new styles of heat pumps and what temperatures they work at?

Tim: Yeah, absolutely. The best way to start that is to talk about the old heat pumps. A lot of people think that heat pumps can’t work below 35 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the technology of 25, 30 years ago. The Mitsubishi inverter heat pumps have the ability to produce 100% heating capacity at five degrees Fahrenheit and the hyper heat models can still produce heat down to temperatures below zero.

Now those systems, if they’re sized properly, they can be a permanent heating source in your home. And one of the neat tools that we at Jones use for sizing these systems is a Mitsubishi program called a diamond system builder that will spit out the exact BTUs based on your indoor and outdoor units at certain temperature days. So if we are going to size it for a four degree day in the winter time, we’re going to be able to tell you exactly how many BTUs that spits out and match it to another heating program we have called a manual J so at that point, there’s no guessing.

How Do You Apply for Rebates?

John: So does a homeowner have to handle the paperwork themselves to apply for these rebates?

Tim: They do not. We do all of the permit processing, the rebate processing. Now there are some forms that we provide them that they will have to sign so that we could discuss the rebate on their behalf. But besides that it’s all done through our office.

How Do Rebates Help Offset the Cost of Ductless?

John: Okay. And what can a homeowner expect in terms of recouping the cost of a ductless system installation?

Tim: John, one of the coolest ways to answer this question is when somebody has an air conditioning system and maybe it’s eight, 10 or 12 years old and it’s time to replace it. If they don’t consider a heat pump just because it seems like they’ll be spending a little bit more money, then, the person that they were discussing it with, didn’t do a good job.

Now, if you’re going to invest money in a new air conditioning system, my opinion is that an air conditioning system is essential for those three or four months of the year when it’s hot and humid. If you just spend a little bit more money and you invest in a heat pump, that heat pump can run eight, nine, 10, 12 months out of the year, and now, it starts to offset one of the biggest utility costs of your house, which is heating.

So now that air conditioning system can do some heating and start to pay for itself in energy savings. It’ll recoup that in no time. And then it’ll just start to pay even more back into your pocket.

John: Right? So if you’re already thinking of installing air conditioning, a heat pump is a great option because not only does it do air conditioning, but like you said, it can at the very least supplement your heating in your home and start to remove some of those heating costs.

Tim: Yes. A hundred percent. Even if you replace your air conditioning, just because you only had air conditioning before, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use a heat pump now, or if you’re in the market for air conditioning and you don’t consider a heat pump, then you didn’t get all the right information.

Additional Points About Ductless Rebates

John: So Matt, what are some additional things to consider with ductless rebates?

Matt: Well, John, I think the most important few things that I’d like to end the conversation with is that there are a variety of different rebates available for every customer, from a single room type rebate to a whole home rebate and beyond, and it’s important to really talk to your professional about what your goals are with the system.

And then while doing that, we’ll be able to match and explain a little bit more about what types of rebates or the size of rebate you would be able to get to help offset the cost of the system. Beyond that, the paperwork that’s involved with filing for these rebates, it’s pretty extensive. You know, we here at Jones have a full-time employee whose sole responsibility is to do that.

A homeowner on their own would really struggle to provide the appropriate manual J and manual S info which are some specific documents that are required as well as a number of pictures of this system once it’s installed to be able to make sure that they qualify for it. On average, my rebate processor spends about two to three hours of time putting all this stuff together and they’re used to doing it every day. So a typical homeowner’s probably going to struggle and get frustrated in trying to actually collect that rebate if they’re doing it on their own.

The other thing that I’d like to mention is that these rebates are available for a limited time at this point. So we encourage customers to reach out to us now to sit down and set up an appointment if they are interested in maximizing the availability of them. And if they have any other questions, again, meeting with somebody from our company to come out there and explain them and navigate this process to them is really going to help them maximize and get the most out of their system.

Contact Jones Services to Talk About Rebates for Ductless Heat Pumps

John: All right. That’s really great advice, Tim and Matt, thanks again for speaking with me today.

Matt: Yeah, John, thanks for having us.

Tim: Yeah John. Thanks.

John: And for more information, you can visit the website at jonesservices.com or call 8452941010.