The Warmer Kiwi Homes heat pump grant in Wellington

Warmer Kiwi Homes is a government grant run by EECA that covers up to 90% of the cost of an approved heat pump for your main living area, capped at $3,450 including GST. It's taken off the installer's quote up front, not paid back later, and after the grant eligible homeowners usually pay around $300 to $700 out of pocket. We can help you understand it, but EECA decides who qualifies.

This is one of the most useful schemes going for warming an older Wellington home, and it sits alongside our main pages on heat pump installation in Wellington and what installation costs. Here's the honest rundown.

What the grant is

Warmer Kiwi Homes is run by EECA, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. The heating grant covers up to 90% of the cost of an approved heat pump for your main living area, capped at $3,450 including GST. It's for one unit, sized for that living space, rather than a whole-home or ducted system.

The grant comes off the installer's quote up front, so you don't pay the full price and claim it back later. After the grant, eligible homeowners typically pay somewhere around $300 to $700 out of pocket, depending on the size and brand of unit.

Not every heat pump qualifies. The unit has to meet EECA's energy efficiency standards, and eligible models include selected Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin and Panasonic units. We can talk you through which models are approved and which suits your room, the same way we do across the heat pump sizing calculator.

Who qualifies

To get the heat pump grant you need to meet all of the following:

• You own and live in the home as your main residence.
• The home was built before 2008.
• You hold a Community Services Card or a SuperGold Combo Card, or you live in an area EECA classifies as low-to-middle income (the checker confirms this by address).
• The home already has ceiling and underfloor insulation, or has been assessed as unable to take it.
• The home does not already have an operational fixed heater (a heat pump, wood or pellet burner, flued gas heater, or central heating) in any living area.

The only way to know for certain is to run your address through EECA's official checker, which confirms the building age, income-area and card requirements for your property. Check your eligibility on the official EECA Warmer Kiwi Homes page.

Last checked: June 2026. Grant amounts and eligibility are set by EECA and can change, so always confirm the current detail on the EECA website.

What changed for 2026

From 9 January 2026, Warmer Kiwi Homes no longer accepts new applications for wood and pellet burner grants. Heat pump grants carry on as normal, and programme funding is confirmed through to 30 June 2027. If a wood burner was on your radar, a heat pump is now the path the grant supports.

Some areas also have community top-up funding that can bring the out-of-pocket cost down further. This varies by region and changes over time, so it's worth asking EECA whether anything extra applies where you live.

How to check, and what we do

Start with EECA. Use the official Warmer Kiwi Homes eligibility checker to confirm your address, building age and card status. EECA is the authority on who qualifies and how the grant is delivered.

To be straight with you: we are not the grant administrator, and we don't process Warmer Kiwi Homes applications. What we do is help you understand whether the grant is likely to apply to your home, talk through the approved heat pump options, and give you an honest quote for your space. For the grant itself, always go through EECA's official process. If you'd like a hand making sense of it, get in touch with us and we'll happily talk it through.

Why this grant fits Wellington homes

Warmer Kiwi Homes is aimed squarely at older, harder-to-heat houses, and a lot of greater Wellington fits the bill. Plenty of the region's homes are pre-2008 timber, single glazed and exposed to the southerly, which is exactly the cold, damp stock the grant is meant to help. If yours already has insulation in and no fixed heater in the living area, there's a good chance it's the kind of home the scheme targets.

The grant covers one unit for the main living area, so getting that unit sized right matters even more. You can work out what size heat pump you need in about a minute, see real figures in our heat pump installation cost guide, and read how we go about a fitting on our heat pump installation in Wellington page.

Common questions about the grant