How do I enroll in the Heat Pump Rate?

For most households you do not have to. Enrollment is automatic — and you are notified — if you received a Mass Save heat pump rebate on that electric account for a system installed after January 1, 2019. Four cases still need an application: National Grid customers who took the $250/ton Basic rebate (apply rather than wait); new-construction and renovation-program installs at any sponsor; anyone whose heat pump never went through Mass Save, since manual enrollment is open to any home that space-heats with a heat pump regardless of install date; and anyone who has not been enrolled after a rebate was paid. National Grid only auto-enrolls once the rebate is fully processed and paid, which takes 6–8 weeks. Eversource accepts proof of purchase, a contractor invoice, a Mass Save rebate confirmation letter or email, a photo of the outdoor unit showing model and serial number, or a MassCEC-approved application. Unitil handles enrollment at 1-888-301-7700.

Will I save money on the Heat Pump Rate?

Each sponsor publishes its own figures. Eversource reports that enrolled customers paid about $430 less over last winter's heating season, roughly $72 per month. National Grid publishes $70–$141 per month from November through April on its R-1 residential rate, and $20–$96 per month on the R-2 income-eligible rate. Unitil publishes $82–$166 per month November through April, and $49–$99 per month for income-eligible customers; Unitil is also the only sponsor that states the per-kWh delta directly, at roughly $0.09/kWh below its Standard Residential R1 rate. The saving scales with how much electricity you use in the discounted months, so a home whose heat pump carries the heating load captures the most. There is no case where enrolling costs you more than the standard rate — the discount applies to every winter kilowatt-hour with nothing priced above standard in exchange.

What if I keep my furnace or boiler as backup?

The rate still applies, and there is no load-shape test to pass. You qualify because the home uses a heat pump for space heating — partial-home installs count, and the heat pump does not have to be your only heat source. Running a furnace or boiler in deep cold, below the heat pump's economic balance point (typically 5–15°F outdoor), does not reduce your eligibility or trigger any penalty. It only means you buy fewer winter kilowatt-hours, so the dollar saving is smaller than it would be for a whole-home heat pump household. A heat pump used only for cooling does not qualify, and neither does electric resistance heat or a heat pump water heater on its own.

Does the Heat Pump Rate apply to all my electricity?

Yes. From November 1 through April 30, every kilowatt-hour on the account is discounted — the heat pump, the dryer, the oven, the dishwasher, the lights, EV charging, all of it. The price is the same at 2 PM as it is at 2 AM, so there is no reason to move laundry, dishwasher runs or vehicle charging to a different hour for this rate. From May 1 through October 31 the account returns to the standard residential rate and the discount stops until the next season.

Can I opt out of the Heat Pump Rate later?

Yes, at all three sponsors. National Grid takes opt-out requests at 1-800-322-3223; Unitil handles both enrollment and opt-out at 1-888-301-7700 and asks for a one-year commitment when you join; Eversource processes it through customer service. There are few reasons to bother — the rate is a discount with no offsetting higher charge, so there is no usage pattern that makes it more expensive than the standard rate. Two mechanics worth knowing: the rate follows the premise rather than the customer, so it stays with the home when you sell, and it is not retroactive — nothing before November 1, 2025 is recalculated.

Is the Heat Pump Rate available everywhere in Massachusetts?

No — three sponsors offer it: Eversource MA, National Grid MA and Unitil MA. Cape Light Compact does not offer it, so Cape and Vineyard customers stay on the standard aggregation rate. Municipal Light Plant customers (towns like Reading, Belmont, Concord and Wakefield) sit outside the Mass Save sponsor rate program entirely and do not get it either, though some MLPs run their own local heat pump offers — check with your municipal utility directly. If you are unsure which applies, the sponsor lookup resolves your city or town to its electric sponsor.

Mass Save Heat Pump Rate: The Seasonal November–April Discount on Every kWh You Use

By MassHVAC Editorial Team Reviewed by MassHVAC Editorial Team Last updated 2026-09-19

What the Heat Pump Rate actually is

The Mass Save Heat Pump Rate — formally the Massachusetts Seasonal Heat Pump Rate — is a seasonal discount on the delivery side of your electric bill. Eversource MA, National Grid MA and Unitil MA each cut the distribution rate (Eversource also cuts transmission) on all of an enrolled household's electricity use from November 1 through April 30. From May through October, enrolled customers pay the standard residential rate. The program took effect November 1, 2025.

That is the whole mechanism. The price does not vary by hour of the day or day of the week — there are no higher-priced hours to avoid, no penalty for running the dryer at 5 PM, and nothing to reschedule. A kWh in January costs the discounted rate whether you use it at 2 AM or 2 PM; a kWh in July costs the standard rate. The discount scales with how much electricity you buy in the discounted months, which is why a household heating with a heat pump captures far more of it than one that added a heat pump for cooling only.

Most households never apply for it. Customers who received a Mass Save heat pump rebate on their electric account for a system installed after January 1, 2019 are enrolled automatically and notified. National Grid adds customers once the rebate is fully processed and paid, which takes 6–8 weeks — and customers who took the $250/ton Basic rebate must apply rather than wait. New-construction and renovation-program installs must apply at every sponsor. Anyone else with a heat pump used for space heating can apply with proof of purchase, a contractor invoice, a Mass Save rebate confirmation, a photo of the outdoor unit showing model and serial, or a MassCEC-approved application.

Two consequences of the discount living on the delivery side of the bill are worth knowing. First, it does not conflict with your supply arrangement: municipal-aggregation and third-party-supply customers still get it, along with renters who hold their own residential electric account, solar and net-metering customers, and income-eligible customers through the R-2 heat pump variant. Second, it does not appear as its own line item — it is folded into the distribution charge, so the way to confirm it is to compare your distribution rate against the standard one, not to hunt for a "heat pump rate" row.

The exclusions are narrow but firm. Electric resistance heat (baseboards, space heaters, electric furnaces) does not qualify. Neither does a heat pump used only for cooling, nor a heat pump water heater on its own. Commercial accounts are excluded.

September 19, 2026 Correction

This page described the rate incorrectly until today

The Massachusetts heat pump electric rate changed on November 1, 2025. Earlier guidance — including every previous version of this page, and a good deal of advice still circulating elsewhere — described an optional hourly rate: you applied for it, overnight kWh were cheap, weekday afternoon and evening kWh were priced above standard, and you were told to move laundry, dishwasher runs and EV charging into the cheap hours. That is not the program in force. What specifically changed:

Seasonal, not hourly. Every kilowatt-hour between November 1 and April 30 is discounted at the same price. No hour of the day is priced above the standard rate, so the old advice to reschedule appliances or vehicle charging around this rate was wrong and has been removed.
Usually automatic, not something you sign up for. A Mass Save heat pump rebate on the account for a system installed after January 1, 2019 enrolls you and the utility notifies you.
Three sponsors, not two. Unitil runs the rate alongside Eversource and National Grid. Cape Light Compact does not offer it, and neither do the municipal light plants.
A delivery-side discount. It reduces distribution (and transmission at Eversource) rather than replacing your whole rate schedule, so municipal-aggregation and third-party-supply customers keep it.
The per-kWh figures moved. The effective winter rates in the table below are now the standard rate minus each sponsor's published or derived winter discount, replacing the year-round blended prices this page used to publish.

Re-verified 2026-09-19 against Eversource, National Grid, Unitil, and the Mass Save FAQ. Dated corrections to every incentive figure we track live on the incentives changelog.

The discount window opens November 1 — check your enrollment now

Only kWh used between November 1 and April 30 are discounted, and the rate is not retroactive. Every winter billing cycle that starts before your enrollment lands is billed at the standard rate and does not get recalculated later. Three timing traps to clear before November 1: National Grid's automatic enrollment only fires once your Mass Save rebate is fully processed and paid, which takes 6–8 weeks, so a rebate still in flight in late September is cutting it close; if you took National Grid's $250/ton Basic rebate, nobody will enroll you automatically and you have to apply; and new-construction and renovation-program installs must apply at every sponsor. If you had a heat pump rebate paid on the account and never received an enrollment notice, call your utility rather than assume it went through.

Rate comparison by Mass Save sponsor

Standard residential rate versus the effective all-in rate an enrolled household pays on heating-season kWh, per kWh:

Sponsor	Standard rate	Heat Pump Rate (Nov 1 – Apr 30)	Winter discount	Source / notes
Eversource	$0.32/kWh	$0.28/kWh	−$0.04/kWh	Derived from Eversource MA published ~$72/month winter savings at a 1,670 kWh/month reference
National Grid	$0.30/kWh	$0.24/kWh	−$0.06/kWh	Derived from National Grid MA published $70–$141/month winter savings at its published 1,670 kWh/month reference (midpoint)
Unitil	$0.31/kWh	$0.22/kWh	−$0.09/kWh	Unitil MA publishes the delta directly: winter Heat Pump Rate ≈ $0.09/kWh below Standard Residential R1
Cape Light Compact	$0.28/kWh	Not offered	—	Cape Light Compact does not participate in the Seasonal Heat Pump Rate
MLP	$0.18/kWh	Not offered	—	Municipal light plants are outside the Mass Save sponsor rate program; some run their own local offers

Verified 2026-09-19 against the Eversource, National Grid and Unitil heat pump rate pages and the Mass Save FAQ. Only those three sponsors run the rate: Cape Light Compact does not offer it, and municipal light plants are outside the program — both are shown at their standard rate for comparison. Unitil is the only sponsor that publishes the per-kWh delta directly; the Eversource and National Grid discounts are derived from their published monthly dollar savings at National Grid's cited 1,670 kWh/month reference, so treat them as close approximations rather than tariff figures. Standard rates are supply plus delivery; the discount applies to delivery.

What the rate is worth, by household type

Being enrolled never costs you money — the discount lands on every winter kilowatt-hour and nothing is priced above standard in exchange. What varies is how much it is worth, and that comes down to how much electricity you buy between November and April:

Heat pump as primary heat (whole-home install): The full published saving. Winter heating runtime is the largest electric load in the house and all of it is discounted. This is the household Eversource's ~$430-per-season figure and National Grid's $70–$141/month range describe.
Heat pump primary, furnace or boiler as deep-cold backup: Nearly as much. Hours below the economic balance point (typically 5–15°F outdoor) shift onto the fossil system, so you buy somewhat fewer discounted kWh. The rate applies identically and the backup firing carries no penalty.
True dual-fuel split (50/50 heat pump and furnace/boiler): Roughly half the heating-side benefit, plus the discount on everything else the house runs November through April — lights, laundry, cooking, hot water, vehicle charging. Still clearly worth being enrolled.
Heat pump for cooling only, gas or oil heat: Not eligible. A heat pump used only for cooling does not qualify. Neither does electric resistance heat, nor a heat pump water heater on its own unless the home also space-heats with a heat pump.
EV charger plus heat pump household: The largest dollar benefit of any profile. Winter charging kWh is discounted at the same rate as heating kWh, at every hour of the day. You do not need to schedule charging to capture it.

Income-eligible customers receive the rate through the R-2 variant, which publishes its own figures: $20–$96/month at National Grid and $49–$99/month at Unitil.

How to enroll — and when you don't have to

First, check whether you already are. If a Mass Save heat pump rebate was paid on your electric account for a system installed after January 1, 2019, your sponsor should have enrolled you and sent notice. No notice and no rate change means it did not happen — call rather than wait.
National Grid: wait out the rebate, or apply. Automatic enrollment only runs once the rebate is fully processed and paid, which takes 6–8 weeks. If you took the $250/ton Basic rebate, automatic enrollment does not cover you at all and you must apply. Same for new-construction and renovation-program installs, at every sponsor.
Eversource: apply online with documentation. Eversource accepts proof of purchase, a contractor invoice, a Mass Save rebate confirmation letter or email, a photo of the outdoor unit showing model and serial number, or a MassCEC-approved application. Your Mass Save HPIN installer's invoice satisfies this.
Unitil: call 1-888-301-7700. Unitil enrolls automatically on a qualifying Mass Save rebate and handles both enrollment and opt-out on that line. It asks for a one-year commitment.
No Mass Save rebate at all? Apply anyway. Manual enrollment is open to any home that space-heats with a heat pump, whatever the install date and whether or not Mass Save was involved. Renters with their own residential electric account qualify on the same terms.

Sponsor rate pages: Eversource, National Grid, Unitil. Two mechanics worth knowing before you call: the rate follows the premise rather than the customer, so a home enrolled by a previous owner stays enrolled, and it is not retroactive — nothing before November 1, 2025 is recalculated, and a late enrollment is not backdated to the start of the season.

Real-world math: a 2000 sqft Massachusetts home, oil → heat pump

To make the rate concrete, price the same household with and without enrollment. Because the program's November 1 – April 30 window and the Massachusetts heating season are effectively the same months, the seasonal rate is the right price to apply to heating kWh. Assumptions:

2000 sqft single-family, IECC 5A (Greater Boston), average insulation
Annual heating load: 100 MMBtu/yr (100,000 kBtu)
Cold-climate heat pump on the Mass Save HPQPL, seasonal COP 2.6
Eversource MA service territory — standard residential rate $0.32/kWh, heating-season Heat Pump Rate $0.28/kWh (a $0.04/kWh winter discount)
Baseline being displaced: oil boiler at 83% AFUE, oil at $3.80/gal

The arithmetic:

Heat pump kWh: 100,000,000 BTU ÷ 3,412 BTU/kWh ÷ COP 2.6 = ~11,272 kWh/yr, essentially all of it inside the discount window
Cost at the standard rate: 11,272 kWh × $0.32 = $3,607/yr
Cost on the Heat Pump Rate: 11,272 kWh × $0.28 = $3,156/yr
Rate saving on heating alone: $451/yr (~13% off the heating-season electric bill), which lines up with the ~$430 per season Eversource reports for enrolled customers. Every other winter kWh in the house — laundry, cooking, hot water, lighting — is discounted too, on top of this.
Oil baseline: 870 gallons × $3.80 = $3,306/yr

Now the swing the rate creates:

Heat pump at the standard rate vs oil: $3,607 vs $3,306 = $301/yr more expensive than oil. On paper the conversion looks like a wash or a small loss on operating cost alone.
Heat pump on the Heat Pump Rate vs oil: $3,156 vs $3,306 = $150/yr cheaper than oil. Same equipment, same home, same heating load — enrollment is the only variable, and it flips the sign.

At $3.80/gal oil the rate is what decides whether an oil conversion pencils on operating cost at all — it moves this household from about $301/yr worse than oil to about $150/yr better, before any rebate or capital cost is counted. It is a margin, not a windfall: sites promising thousands a year in fuel savings from an oil-to-heat-pump swap are quoting something other than Massachusetts electric rates. The swing gets larger as oil prices rise and smaller as they fall.

Run the same math on your home with the operating-cost calculator (which prices both the standard and the seasonal rate), or get the installed-cost-after-rebate picture from the cost & rebate calculator.

What the Heat Pump Rate does not do

The discount is real, and it is narrow. What it does not cover:

May through October. Half the year is billed at the standard residential rate. Summer cooling, pool pumps and shoulder-season vehicle charging get nothing from this program.
Supply. The reduction applies to distribution, plus transmission at Eversource. Your supply price — basic service, municipal aggregation, or a third-party contract — is untouched, and supply is usually the larger half of the bill. Shopping supply is a separate decision, and making it does not cost you the heat pump discount.
Anything before November 1, 2025, or any part of a season that elapsed before your enrollment processed. There is no backdating.
Non-qualifying heat. Electric resistance heat (baseboards, space heaters, electric furnaces) does not qualify. Neither does a heat pump used only for cooling, nor a heat pump water heater on its own. Commercial accounts are excluded.
The purchase decision. A few hundred dollars a winter does not decide whether the equipment pays for itself; the Mass Save rebate and the 0% HEAT Loan do that work. Treat the rate as a running-cost improvement you should not leave on the table, not as a reason to buy.

What it also does not require is any change in how you use electricity. No hour of the day costs more under this rate, so advice to move laundry, dishwasher runs or vehicle charging around it — advice earlier versions of this page gave — buys you nothing.

How to verify your rate enrollment is working

There is no "heat pump rate" line item to look for; the discount is folded into the distribution charge. Three ways to confirm it:

Take a bill from a month between November and April and divide the distribution charge by the kWh billed. Compare that against your sponsor's published standard residential distribution rate — enrolled, yours is lower. Eversource customers should see a reduced transmission charge as well.
Compare a winter bill against a summer one at similar usage. Enrolled accounts pay the standard rate May through October, so the delivery side should step up on the first bill after April 30 and step back down after November 1.
Look for the enrollment notice. All three sponsors notify the customers they enroll automatically. If a rebate was paid on your account and no notice ever arrived, assume the enrollment did not happen.

If the distribution rate still matches the standard schedule a full billing cycle into the season, call: Eversource residential customer service, National Grid at 1-800-322-3223, or Unitil at 1-888-301-7700. Enrollments filed close to November 1 sometimes land a cycle late, and the missed weeks are not credited back.

Bottom line

If your Massachusetts home heats with a heat pump and your electric sponsor is Eversource, National Grid or Unitil, you should be on the Seasonal Heat Pump Rate for the November 1 – April 30 window — and if a Mass Save heat pump rebate was paid on the account for a post-2019 install, you probably already are. It is worth about $430 a season on Eversource's published figure, $70–$141 a month at National Grid and $82–$166 a month at Unitil, with no upfront cost, no change to how you use electricity, and no offsetting higher charge anywhere on the bill. The cases that need action are the ones automation misses: National Grid's $250/ton Basic rebate, new-construction and renovation-program installs, a rebate still working its way through processing, and any heat pump that never went through Mass Save. Handle those before November 1 — the discount starts the day the season does and does not backdate. Cape Light Compact and municipal light plant customers do not have this rate available at all. To size the running-cost picture for your own home, model it in the operating-cost calculator.

Mass Save Heat Pump Rate FAQ

What is the Mass Save Heat Pump Rate?: It is a seasonal discount on your electric delivery charges. Eversource MA, National Grid MA and Unitil MA each reduce the distribution portion of the bill — Eversource also reduces transmission — on every kilowatt-hour an enrolled household uses from November 1 through April 30. From May through October the account pays the standard residential rate. The program took effect November 1, 2025. It is not an hourly rate: there are no higher-priced hours, no penalty windows, and nothing to schedule around. Because the discount sits on the delivery side of the bill, municipal-aggregation and third-party-supply customers receive it too; it is folded into the distribution charge rather than shown as its own line item.
How do I enroll in the Heat Pump Rate?: For most households you do not have to. Enrollment is automatic — and you are notified — if you received a Mass Save heat pump rebate on that electric account for a system installed after January 1, 2019. Four cases still need an application: National Grid customers who took the $250/ton Basic rebate (apply rather than wait); new-construction and renovation-program installs at any sponsor; anyone whose heat pump never went through Mass Save, since manual enrollment is open to any home that space-heats with a heat pump regardless of install date; and anyone who has not been enrolled after a rebate was paid. National Grid only auto-enrolls once the rebate is fully processed and paid, which takes 6–8 weeks. Eversource accepts proof of purchase, a contractor invoice, a Mass Save rebate confirmation letter or email, a photo of the outdoor unit showing model and serial number, or a MassCEC-approved application. Unitil handles enrollment at 1-888-301-7700.
Will I save money on the Heat Pump Rate?: Each sponsor publishes its own figures. Eversource reports that enrolled customers paid about $430 less over last winter's heating season, roughly $72 per month. National Grid publishes $70–$141 per month from November through April on its R-1 residential rate, and $20–$96 per month on the R-2 income-eligible rate. Unitil publishes $82–$166 per month November through April, and $49–$99 per month for income-eligible customers; Unitil is also the only sponsor that states the per-kWh delta directly, at roughly $0.09/kWh below its Standard Residential R1 rate. The saving scales with how much electricity you use in the discounted months, so a home whose heat pump carries the heating load captures the most. There is no case where enrolling costs you more than the standard rate — the discount applies to every winter kilowatt-hour with nothing priced above standard in exchange.
What if I keep my furnace or boiler as backup?: The rate still applies, and there is no load-shape test to pass. You qualify because the home uses a heat pump for space heating — partial-home installs count, and the heat pump does not have to be your only heat source. Running a furnace or boiler in deep cold, below the heat pump's economic balance point (typically 5–15°F outdoor), does not reduce your eligibility or trigger any penalty. It only means you buy fewer winter kilowatt-hours, so the dollar saving is smaller than it would be for a whole-home heat pump household. A heat pump used only for cooling does not qualify, and neither does electric resistance heat or a heat pump water heater on its own.
Does the Heat Pump Rate apply to all my electricity?: Yes. From November 1 through April 30, every kilowatt-hour on the account is discounted — the heat pump, the dryer, the oven, the dishwasher, the lights, EV charging, all of it. The price is the same at 2 PM as it is at 2 AM, so there is no reason to move laundry, dishwasher runs or vehicle charging to a different hour for this rate. From May 1 through October 31 the account returns to the standard residential rate and the discount stops until the next season.
Can I opt out of the Heat Pump Rate later?: Yes, at all three sponsors. National Grid takes opt-out requests at 1-800-322-3223; Unitil handles both enrollment and opt-out at 1-888-301-7700 and asks for a one-year commitment when you join; Eversource processes it through customer service. There are few reasons to bother — the rate is a discount with no offsetting higher charge, so there is no usage pattern that makes it more expensive than the standard rate. Two mechanics worth knowing: the rate follows the premise rather than the customer, so it stays with the home when you sell, and it is not retroactive — nothing before November 1, 2025 is recalculated.
Is the Heat Pump Rate available everywhere in Massachusetts?: No — three sponsors offer it: Eversource MA, National Grid MA and Unitil MA. Cape Light Compact does not offer it, so Cape and Vineyard customers stay on the standard aggregation rate. Municipal Light Plant customers (towns like Reading, Belmont, Concord and Wakefield) sit outside the Mass Save sponsor rate program entirely and do not get it either, though some MLPs run their own local heat pump offers — check with your municipal utility directly. If you are unsure which applies, the sponsor lookup resolves your city or town to its electric sponsor.

Related Massachusetts heat pump guides

Also useful

Get matched to an HPIN installer who files the rebate that enrolls you

Tell us your home, sponsor utility, and current heating system; we'll route the quote to a Mass Save HPIN installer. A properly filed heat pump rebate is what triggers automatic enrollment in the seasonal Heat Pump Rate at Eversource, National Grid and Unitil.

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