Heat pump interest is surging nationally. Eagle County is seeing similar momentum, local experts say. 

Americans are making rapid progress towards clean energy and electrification, and a recent report shared that many are looking to heat pumps as part of the solution. 

According to nonprofit Build Decarbonization Coalition, over the past 15 years, heat pump sales in the United States have doubled. For 2026 specifically, their research found that heat pump shipments surpassed fossil fuel furnaces by 32% in the first quarter of the year. The difference between heat pump sales and air conditioner sales was a 2% gap. 

All in all, the report said that heat pumps are on their way to becoming the leading primary system in new homes. 

On the local level, Eagle County is playing a role in making that happen. From rebate programs, energy coaching and providing names of related contractors, local groups are making sure that residents have all the information they need, as well as the support, to get cold-climate heat pumps — heat pumps that operate at cold temperatures and high altitude — into homes. 

Courtney Bryan, the energy program coordinator at Walking Mountains, said all the work they do at the nonprofit is to work in support of Eagle County’s Climate Action Plan, which has a goal of reducing 50% of local greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 80% by 2050, with 2014 as a baseline. 

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“We’re generally focusing on beneficial electrification. And that’s replacing sources of fossil fuels in our homes in ways that are the most beneficial for homeowners. That’s including health, sustainability and personal finances,” she said. 

Installing heat pumps is known for being expensive. That’s why Walking Mountains offers electrification support programs such as the Energy Smart Colorado rebate program, where they provide rebates that are funded by the Eagle County government. 

Bryan said that while heat pumps are not the only thing they rebate, there’s significant interest in the product. She reported that in just this year alone, heat pump rebate applications accounted for almost half of all the rebate applications they are receiving. 

“It’s insane how efficient that these have gotten, and how well they work in cold climates, and even up in elevation,” she said. 

Holy Cross Energy, a partner of Walking Mountains, also reported a lot of attention being paid to heat pumps, mostly for two reasons, according to Kyle Lord, a smart energy and building specialist at HCE. The first is the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates Program at the Colorado Energy Office. This program came from the Inflation Reduction Act for homeowners to update their HVAC to an all-electric heat pump, which Lord said drove a lot of the adoption in the Holy Cross Energy territory. 

The second reason for the interest increase is a local need for cooling and comfort, Lord said. Between summer heat waves, rising gas prices and the warmest winter on record, there is also a cooling benefit that draws customers towards the product. 

Lord said Holy Cross Energy primarily supports heat pump adoption in the form of rebates. The two it offers are residential rebates and commercial and multifamily rebates. For homeowners who are 150% or under their area median income, they can receive double the rebate amount. 

“In general, we support well over 100 heat pump installations across our territory per year,” he said. “I think we’re seeing heat pump installation outpace fossil fuel furnaces nationwide, and we’re definitely seeing a large uptick in heat pump adoption here in our territory.” 

These rebate programs aren’t the only ones with the numbers. Local HVAC groups are also seeing customer interest in installing heat pumps in their homes. 

According to Justin Nielsin from Skyline Mechanical, 90% of the systems they are installing, either new or retrofitted, include heat pump technology in some fashion. This could be on its own, or through a dual fuel system that pairs a heat pump to a furnace or electric strip heat to optimize energy use. He said his team hardly works with air conditioners anymore. 

“The heat pumps are just getting so good and competitive, and with rebates they just make a lot of sense,” he said. Between saving money on their heating bills or acting as an air conditioner more efficiently than conventional air conditioners, the performance of the heat pump seems to draw people in, according to Nielsin’s observations. 

For R & H Mechanical, Tim Braun, vice president of operations, said there’s “no question” about if he’s seen a push towards more heat pump use in Eagle County. 

Braun said with rebate incentives bringing cold-climate heat pumps more in line with replacement furnaces, they’ve seen a significant increase in both sales leads and actual projects. He speculated they’ve almost doubled in the amount of heat pumps they’ve installed. 

He said there is not only support for people interested in heat pumps, but also in aiding the manpower for actually installing them in homes. R & H Mechanical created a trade school in partnership with Colorado Mountain College that aims at a climate-based workforce and trains students to learn how to work with heat pump systems. Braun called it “the first of the Western Slopes of Colorado.”

“We are here locally training green jobs and our future workforce to be able to support and install cold-climate heat pumps in the future,” he said.