This is Shari Bach, founder of Paws Unlimited, a Kingston animal shelter.

Shari loves dogs. She loves the environment. And she loves her ultra-efficient electric geothermal heating and cooling system. “I am over the moon. I’m very, very happy with the system.”

Central Hudson helped make this project a reality by pitching in nearly $10,000 through our heat pump incentive program, which is open to homeowners and small commercial businesses.

In addition, ground-source heat pumps projects can also qualify for federal tax credits of 10% for businesses and 30% for homeowners, while New York State offers a residential-only tax credit of 25%, or up to $5,000. These tax credits are applied to the total system cost.  

Ground-source heat pumps (like Shari’s) operate at up to 600% efficiency and parts of these systems can last up to 50 years. That means decades of extremely cost-effective heating and cooling. In fact, the estimated annual savings for a typical home is about $1,500.

A few feet under the surface, the ground temperature is a constant 50-55 degrees. This means ground-source heat pumps don't have to work very hard to bring a home to comfortable room temperature in the winter or summer. The result is lower energy usage. ;

How can heat pumps be so efficient? Because it’s easier to move heat than create it. When operating at peak efficiency in heating mode, for every unit of electrical energy applied to the system, six units of heat energy are delivered to the indoor air. The rest of the heat is absorbed from the ground. Since the ground temperature 10 feet below the surface never dips below 50 degrees or so, the process doesn’t take much energy even on the coldest winter days.

Because they use a relatively small amount of energy and have no on-site combustion, ground-source heat pumps are “the most energy-efficient, environmentally clean, and cost-effective systems for heating and cooling buildings,” according to the E.P.A. Dandelion, one of the leading regional ground-source installation companies, estimates that a home that switches from oil heat to geothermal would reduce its carbon emissions by about 80 percent; that’s the equivalent of taking 39 cars off the road.

If you’re a Central Hudson customer with a residential or small commercial property, you could qualify for our incentives.

Interested in learning more? Visit our heat pump information page. 

Finding your contractor

Central Hudson has partnered with qualified NYS Clean Heat contractors to inistall energy efficient heat pump systems. To qualify for rebates, you must use a certified contractor from this list. 

Shari Bach used Kingston-based Archibald Heating & Air Conditioning. She recommends them highly.

“Usually you say on a scale of 1-10, I’m going to tell you working with them was like an 18,” says Bach. “It was absolutely amazing.”