Seattle City Light customers: check seattle.gov for current heat pump rebates.
Puget Sound Energy customers: check pse.com for current heat pump rebates.
A separate state-funded electrification rebate program is already running through local administrators. Sources: https://www.commerce.wa.gov/energy/clean-buildings/energy-incentives/ira-home-energy-rebates/ and https://www.commerce.wa.gov/energy/clean-buildings/energy-incentives/hear/, fetched 2026-10-14. Around the city, Puget Sound Energy runs its own heat pump rebates, with higher amounts for income-qualified customers (https://www.pse.com/en/rebates/heating/electric-resistance-to-air-source-heat-pump-conversion-rebate, fetched 2026-10-14), and the other public utilities in the region run their own lines. This guide walks the map, then shows how to protect the money in writing. Program terms checked 2026-10-14.
The 2026 Map in One Table
| Program | 2026 amount | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Puget Sound Energy | Confirm the current amount | PSE electric customers |
| PSE income-qualified | Confirm the current amount | Not a stack on the standard path |
The Meter Decides, Not the Address Label
The organizing rule for the whole map: the rebate follows the electric utility, and the utility follows the meter. Inside the city, from Ballard to Rainier Beach, Seattle City Light serves the meter and the City Light program is the one that applies, per our City Light guide. The other utilities on the table, Puget Sound Energy, Snohomish PUD, Snohomish County PUD's tiered ducted lines, Tacoma Power, and Clark Public Utilities down the interstate, serve their own territories, and their numbers are printed here for orientation, because a Seattle household comparing notes with family elsewhere in the region should understand why the dollar amounts differ. On a City Light meter, the City Light line is the entire program.
The Oil Line at the Top of the Ladder
That is a deliberate signal aimed at a real population. The city's older stock, the Wallingford and Ravenna foursquares, the Queen Anne boxes, still holds a meaningful number of oil furnaces with tanks buried in the yard, and the City pays its Clean Heat rebate to retire them.
Reading the PSE Numbers Correctly
Puget Sound Energy's line deserves a careful read even from inside the city, because a PSE-territory install has its own contractor rule. Confirm the current standard and income-qualified amounts with PSE (https://www.pse.com/en/rebates/heating/electric-resistance-to-air-source-heat-pump-conversion-rebate, fetched 2026-10-14). The income-qualified amount is an alternative to the standard path, not a stack on top of it. From April 2, 2026, a PSE-territory install must use a PSE Trade Ally contractor to qualify at all. That last clause is the one to underline: a PSE-territory quote from a non-Trade-Ally contractor is a quote with the rebate already forfeited, and a bidder who does not know the rule has not read their own program this year.
The Income-Qualified Question, Asked First
Income-qualified paths go chronically under-claimed because households assume ineligibility without checking. The check costs minutes. Any household for whom the project budget is a stretch should ask the income question before pricing anything, because the answer can change which projects fit, per our installation cost guide. A contractor who raises the question unprompted is demonstrating program fluency; one who has never heard of an income-qualified tier is demonstrating the opposite.
What Downstream Means for Your Paperwork
Every program on the table is downstream: claimed after installation, through documentation, with the money arriving on the utility's rails rather than as an invoice discount. Several add participation rules on top, PSE's Trade Ally requirement from April 2, 2026 being the sharpest. The practical consequence is that process belongs in the quote as a written term: who submits, what documentation the household receives, when the money is expected. Keep your own copies of the model numbers and the invoice regardless of who submits. The household that can produce its paperwork never has to argue about whether a claim went in.
The Tier Beneath the Dollar Figure
By-measure and tiered programs share a mechanical property worth using: the quoted equipment either qualifies at the claimed level or it does not, and the spec sheet settles it in minutes. Ask which measure or tier the exact model on the quote hits and where the published rating that places it there can be seen. In this climate the ladder points the right direction anyway: the equipment that earns the better rebate line is variable-speed machinery that modulates low and runs steadily, which is precisely what a damp Puget Sound winter rewards, per our cold-weather guide. The guardrail travels with every market: the rebate moves the efficiency choice, never the tonnage, which belongs to the load calculation alone.
The Stale-Quote Test, Washington Edition
Program facts convert into contractor tests. One quoting a generic state rebate, without naming the state-funded electrification program that is already running through local administrators, has failed almost as loudly. One who cannot say which utility serves the meter, or does not know the City Light Clean Heat oil line, or is unaware of the PSE Trade Ally date, has failed more quietly but just as surely. The bidder who names the utility, the measure, the amount, and the filing path in one unprompted paragraph has demonstrated the currency the rest of the specification depends on.
The Order of Operations
Protect the money with sequence. Confirm the utility from the electric bill. Ask the income-qualified question before pricing anything. Get a room-by-room load calculation performed on the actual house. Choose equipment where the rebate measure and the operating math agree. Have the contractor state the rebate amount, the participation rules, and the filing process in writing on the quote. Then compare bids net of the rebate, not on sticker. Six steps, none requiring expertise, all requiring the contractor to demonstrate theirs.
The Short Version
Washington's 2026 map is a utility and city patchwork. A separate state-funded electrification rebate program is already running through local administrators. Puget Sound Energy, Snohomish PUD, and Tacoma Power run their own lines in their own territories; confirm the current PSE amount with PSE. Read the bill, ask the income question first, verify the measure against the spec sheet, and make every bidder put the program in writing.
Get Your Free Seattle Quote
Start your free quote: two minutes, free, no obligation. Ask Heat Pump Network about installers in Seattle.