{"id":213,"date":"2026-05-29T04:08:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=213"},"modified":"2026-05-29T04:08:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:08:40","slug":"an-effort-to-install-thousands-of-heat-pumps-in-coastal-alaska-is-off-to-a-slow-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=213","title":{"rendered":"An effort to install thousands of heat pumps in coastal Alaska is off to a slow start"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Mardell Gunn lives 40 miles north of Haines, where winters are particularly cold, long and snowy. She heats her home two ways \u2014 a wood stove and a 25-year-old oil boiler in the basement.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe worst thing in the world be to have the boiler go out in the middle of the winter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Soon, she won\u2019t have to worry about that. Gunn is getting a heat pump installed, paid for in large part by a federal grant. She\u2019s among hundreds of households across Alaska\u2019s gulf coast who have applied to the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing it because I would really like to use less fossil fuels, and be less dependent on the heating oil,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Gunn said the $8,500 incentive from the Accelerating Clean Energy Savings program is what put her over the edge in deciding to get a heat pump. The money will cover about half the cost of the two systems she\u2019ll need to heat her home.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s first year has been slow. The money comes from a $38 million grant<\/u> from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to two Southeast-based nonprofits. The aim is to lower the cost of installing more than 6,000 electric heat pumps across the region.<\/p>\n

The groups \u2013 Southeast Conference and Alaska Heat Smart \u2013 started accepting applications about a year ago. But as of early May, they had received fewer than 600 applications. Just one hundred systems have gone in so far.<\/p>\n

The grant winds down in October of 2029. Which means to use the full grant, applications, approvals and installations will have to pick up dramatically.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we’re behind. But hopefully we will catch up,\u201d said Jessie Huff, who manages the energy program at Southeast Conference.<\/p>\n

Huff said her goal is to enroll 1,000 people in the program before the end of this calendar year. Which is why they\u2019ve recently started ramping up advertising.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really trying to get the word out,\u201d Huff said.<\/p>\n

Heat pumps are highly efficient, said Paul Carrington, the owner of Clear Water Plumbing and Heating in Haines. That can mean lower bills and less energy use, particularly where the electric grid is primarily fueled by hydropower.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d encourage anybody that can afford to install one to get one. You will appreciate it,\u201d Carrington said.<\/p>\n

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Carrington said an exception in Southeast would be snowbirds who hope to install a heat pump, put it on its lowest setting, and head out for the winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we find in this region is you get these shoulder seasons that have high humidity, and it creates a short cycling issue within the units,\u201d he said. \u201cThey’re not designed to actually be set at their lowest setting in that outdoor temperature. They’re designed to be used to produce heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Households located along Alaska\u2019s gulf coast from Metlakatla to Kodiak<\/u> can apply<\/u>. That does not include Anchorage, Palmer or Wasilla, but it does include the Kenai Peninsula. The address you apply for must be your primary residence, and your main heating system must be oil, propane, gas or wood.<\/p>\n

The incentives range from $4,000 to $8,500, based on income. For lower income households, the program pays a pre-approved contractor directly, so the household doesn\u2019t owe anything up-front.<\/p>\n

The low-income program has been harder to get off the ground because it requires finding and certifying contractors who are willing to participate, Huff said.<\/p>\n

Carrington, of Clear Water Plumbing, said his company is happy to install heat pumps. But at least so far, he\u2019s decided against participating in the low income program, which he said would require a lot of extra back-end work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just that the amount of paperwork that it creates for us is not worth it for the very few that are going to go in,\u201d Carrington said.<\/p>\n

The complicated process can be a holdup for households, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to really want to do it, and it’s going to cost money, and a lot of times the incentive doesn’t pay for all of it,\u201d Huff said.<\/p>\n

But for Gunn, in Haines, who qualified for the low-income option, the incentive was too big to pass up.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everyone has $8,500 laying around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the program, or to apply, visit https:\/\/akheatsmart.org\/aces\/.<\/p>\n

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The program has a goal of installing 6,000 heat pumps by 2029, but only 100 have gone in so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAn effort to install thousands of heat pumps in coastal Alaska is off to a slow start - Alaska Moving Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=213\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An effort to install thousands of heat pumps in coastal Alaska is off to a slow start - Alaska Moving Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The program has a goal of installing 6,000 heat pumps by 2029, but only 100 have gone in so far.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=213\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Alaska Moving Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-29T04:08:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/?p=213#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/?p=213\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4e09896005b88414084eb4bd3215ab0a\"},\"headline\":\"An effort to install thousands of heat pumps in coastal Alaska is off to a slow start\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-29T04:08:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/?p=213\"},\"wordCount\":776,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/?p=213#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/4983a30eff99bc5e45051f333e0b3ef9-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/?p=213#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/?p=213\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\\\/?p=213\",\"name\":\"An effort to install thousands of heat pumps in coastal Alaska is off to a slow start - 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