How to Start Lowering Your Heating and Electricity Bills in Canada

Most Canadian homes get two energy bills, and most advice treats them as one problem. They are not. The electricity bill is mostly about when you use power and which price plan you are on. The heating bill — gas, oil, propane, or electric — is mostly about how much heat escapes the house and how old the heating system is. Lowering both takes the same order of operations: use less first, get on the right price plan second, and only then spend money on upgrades — with rebates claimed in the right order, from programs that are actually open.

One warning before the steps. The federal rebate landscape changed in 2026, and old articles are everywhere. The Canada Greener Homes Grant is closed. The Greener Homes Loan is closed to new applicants. The federal Oil to Heat Pump Affordability intake closed July 31, 2026. A new National Heat Pump Rebate has been announced but does not open until early 2027. Anyone selling you a system on the strength of a closed program — or knocking on your door claiming to register you for a federal program — is someone to send away. Natural Resources Canada states plainly that it never solicits by phone, email, or door-to-door for its affordability program, and Hydro-Québec says the same about LogisVert.

Start with the two bills in front of you

Pull up the last two bills for each fuel and find four things on each:

1. Your usage. Electricity is billed in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Gas is billed in cubic metres. Compare the same month a year apart, not month to month — winter and summer are different houses, energy-wise.
2. The lines. On an Ontario electricity bill, the Ontario Energy Board sets both the Electricity line and the Delivery line, but they move for different reasons. Changing your price plan changes the Electricity line. Delivery, regulatory charges, and taxes sit outside it. The same split exists on gas bills: the gas itself, delivery, and other charges are separate lines.
3. Your price-plan name. In Ontario it will say Time-of-Use, Ultra-Low Overnight, or Tiered. In other provinces the names differ, but the question is the same: are you paying a flat rate, a time-based rate, or a tiered rate?
4. Credits already applied. In Ontario, look for the Ontario Electricity Rebate credit line and, if you receive it, the OESP credit. From November 1, 2026, the Ontario Electricity Rebate drops to 15.7%, worth about $23 a month for the OEB's typical 700 kWh household — down from about $36. That change is automatic; there is nothing to apply for, and it makes the price-plan choice below matter slightly more, not less.

If a line on the bill makes no sense, call the utility and ask what it is before you change anything. Billing errors are rarer than bad plans, but they do happen, and a plan switch will not fix a meter-reading mistake.

The free moves: use less before you buy anything

These cost nothing, need no contractor, and pay off on any price plan because they cut the number of kWh or cubic metres on the bill rather than the rate:

• Turn the heat down when nobody needs it. Lower the thermostat when everyone is asleep or the house is empty, and turn it back up when you are home and awake. A programmable or smart thermostat does this on a schedule so you do not have to remember. Do not turn the heat off in a Canadian winter — pipes freeze — just turn it down.
• Seal the drafts you can feel. Weather-stripping around doors, caulking around window frames, and draft stoppers under exterior doors are the cheapest envelope work there is. Hydro-Québec puts air and ventilation leaks at up to 25% of a home's heat loss, which is why sealing comes before replacing equipment in this guide.
• Heat water less. Shorter showers, cold-water laundry, and washing full loads use less hot water, and water heating is one of the largest uses in most homes. Fix a dripping hot-water tap — it is heated water running down the drain.
• Swap the lights you use most. LED bulbs in the fixtures that run for hours each day cut that fixture's electricity use. Start with the kitchen, living room, and porch lights, not the closet.
• Use the big machines once, properly. Run the dishwasher and laundry with full loads, and use the dishwasher's eco or air-dry setting if it has one. A half-empty machine costs nearly the same as a full one.

None of these needs a percentage attached to it. A move that cuts use cuts the bill by whatever your rate is — and if you later switch price plans, the free moves keep paying at the new rate.

Ontario: pick the price plan that fits your hours

Ontario is the one province where the price-plan choice is fully in your hands and fully published. The Ontario Energy Board sets the rates once a year, on November 1. From November 1, 2026, the prices are:

How to choose, honestly:

• Stay on TOU if your use is spread through the day and you cannot reliably move much of it. The OEB notes that Ontario households use nearly two thirds of their electricity in off-peak hours already, which is why TOU is the default for most homes.
• Switch to ULO only if you can move a large share of use into the 11 p.m.–7 a.m. window — an electric vehicle charging overnight, laundry and dishwasher on timers, a water heater or heat pump you can schedule. The catch is the 37.7-cent weekday evening rate, double the TOU on-peak price. A household that cooks, heats, and runs the dryer between 4 and 9 p.m. on weekdays can lose money on ULO.
• Switch to Tiered if your use is steady and you dislike clock-watching. It charges the same price whatever the hour, at a flat rate until you cross the monthly threshold. Heavy winter users — electric heat, a hot tub, an EV — should check whether they blow past 1,000 kWh most winter months, because everything above the threshold bills at 13.2 cents.

You can switch between the three plans through your utility. The OEB is clear that savings are not guaranteed and depend on how much you use and when. If you signed a contract with an energy retailer, none of this applies — the contract price governs, the OEB does not regulate it, and you pay the Global Adjustment on top. Check which situation you are in before you switch anything.

Outside Ontario, the structures differ by province and utility, and this guide does not invent them. The move is the same: call your utility or check your account online and ask for the plan comparison — what plans exist, what each charges, and what your last twelve months would have cost on each. BC Hydro, Hydro-Québec, Manitoba Hydro, and the Maritime utilities all publish their rate structures; the comparison is a fifteen-minute job with your last bill in hand.

Smooth the bill without shrinking it: equal payment plans

If the problem is the winter spike rather than the yearly total, most utilities offer an equal payment plan. Enbridge Gas's Equal Monthly Payment Plan in Ontario divides your forecast yearly gas cost into twelve equal installments, reviews the plan periodically, and settles the difference at the true-up — Enbridge's own wording is that you only pay for the gas you use. FortisBC offers an Equal Payment Plan for gas and electricity customers in BC on the same principle.

Understand what this is and is not. It does not lower the total. It does not cut a cent off the year's cost. It turns twelve uneven bills into twelve equal ones so a household budget stops getting ambushed every January. If your goal is a smaller total, go back to the free moves and the envelope work. If your goal is predictability, equal billing is the right tool — just watch the true-up: if the forecast underestimated your use or rates rose, the installment goes up or a balance rolls forward.

Rebates that are open right now

Rebate rules have one unforgiving pattern across every program in this section: verify eligibility and get any required pre-approval before you buy equipment or sign a contract, use a contractor from the program's registered list where one is required, and keep every invoice. Programs also change amounts and close without much notice — every figure below was read on the program's own page on November 11, 2026, and every program page should be re-checked before you commit money.

Federal: the no-cost door and the not-yet-open door

Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program — open, through your province. This is the live federal program for low-to-median-income homeowners and tenants. It pays the full cost of recommended retrofits — insulation, heat pumps, and similar work — delivered directly by selected organizations in the province or territory. There is no out-of-pocket cost to participate. As of late October 2026, households in British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec can apply through their provincial program; more provinces and territories are added as they join. The important mechanics: you apply to the provincial or territorial program, not to the federal government, which accepts no household applications. Start on the Natural Resources Canada program page and follow the link for your province.

National Heat Pump Rebate — announced, opens early 2027. The federal government is investing $2 billion in a rebate for efficient electric heat pumps, delivered through an online portal with no energy audit required, and expects to support up to 820,000 households before the program closes in March 2034. Households will be eligible for $2,000, or up to $10,000 for low-to-median-income households. The eligibility criteria, the eligible-products list, and the income thresholds are published now: an install on or after November 1, 2026 qualifies for the retroactive claim only if the heat pump is on the eligible list (identified by its AHRI numbers), was bought from and installed by an HVAC contractor, and no federal funding was previously provided for a heat pump at that address. Only one rebate is available per household, receipts must be submitted within six months and must show the applicant's name and address, the installing company, the make, model and AHRI number, the number of heat pumps, and the total project cost. No payment is made until the program launches and an application is approved, and funding is not guaranteed until then.

Ontario: Home Renovation Savings

Ontario's program is delivered by Enbridge Gas and Save on Energy with Government of Ontario support, and it runs on two paths. The bundled path requires a home energy assessment before any work, at least two upgrades, and a follow-up assessment; the energy advisor submits the documents and the rebates follow. The single-upgrade path — heat pumps, solar plus battery storage, smart thermostats, attic insulation, appliances — needs no assessment. A smart-thermostat rebate exists on the single-upgrade path; the program page carries the current amount, so check it there rather than trusting a round number from an article.

Bundled-path rebates, from the program's own page:

Heat pumps on the single-upgrade path are rebated per ton of capacity, and the amount depends on what heats your home today: up to $7,500 for a cold-climate air-source heat pump in a home heated by electricity, oil, propane, or wood, and up to $2,000 for the same system in an Enbridge natural-gas-heated home; ground-source systems run up to $12,000 for non-gas-heated homes. Verify your exact figure on the program page before signing — the per-ton rate is the detail contractors most often quote wrong. You must use a participating registered contractor and get pre-approval where the program requires it.

Ontario also runs the Energy Affordability Program for income-eligible households through Save on Energy: a free in-home assessment and upgrades — which can include a cold-climate heat pump — or a self-install energy-saving kit, at no cost to qualifying households. If income is the barrier, check this door before the rebate paths.

British Columbia: BC Hydro and CleanBC

BC Hydro's home renovation rebates pay up to $4,000 for replacing an electric heating system with a heat pump, and up to $12,500 combined across the usual upgrades — insulation, space heating, water heating, windows and doors. BC Hydro administers the CleanBC home-efficiency rebates jointly with FortisBC, so gas-heated homes follow the FortisBC side of the same family of programs; check the rebate page for your own utility rather than assuming the electric-heat figures apply to a gas-heated house.

The time-sensitive item: BC Hydro's $1,000 heat-pump bonus covered systems installed and invoiced between August 1 and October 31, 2026. That window has closed — a new install no longer qualifies. If your install was done and invoiced inside the window, claim it now and confirm the application deadline on BC Hydro's page — the contest period ends November 30, 2026, or earlier if the bonus funding is exhausted. Do not sign a new contract expecting the bonus.

BC Hydro's own efficiency claims, for scale: a high-efficiency heat pump delivers roughly two to three times more heat energy than the electricity it uses over a heating season, and is up to 300% more efficient than electric baseboard heaters. That is the utility's figure, and it is why a heat pump is usually the single largest heating-bill cut available to an electrically heated BC home — after the envelope is fixed.

Quebec: LogisVert

Hydro-Québec's LogisVert Efficient Homes Program pays grants for efficiency measures for owners and, for some measures, renters. From the program's own page: up to $6,700 for a heat pump, with an even higher grant for a high-efficiency model; $1,500 for roof insulation and caulking; $250 for an induction range; $250 for a heat-pump dryer; up to $300 for an efficient pool pump; $250 per 1,000 BTU/h for replacing a geothermal heat pump; $1,000 per installed kilowatt for solar panels, up to 40% of costs. Larger installer-deducted grants exist for electric thermal storage systems: $15,000 for the system alone, $22,000 combined with a central heat pump, and $750 per 1,000 BTU/h for a new geothermal heat pump. Combining several measures in one application adds a 5% bonus, and multi-unit buildings in designated areas can earn a further bonus on cold-climate wall-mounted heat pumps. Check the heat pump you plan to buy against Hydro-Québec's eligible-products search tool before purchasing, and note that the LogisVert web portal is available in French only.

Quebec also runs Rénoclimat, the provincial retrofit program, separately from LogisVert — it covers insulation, windows, and related envelope work rather than heating systems. Its rules change from time to time; check the current Rénoclimat page before planning around it.

Manitoba: Efficiency Manitoba

Efficiency Manitoba pays $2,000 for a centrally ducted cold-climate air-source heat pump and $1,500 for a ductless cold-climate system, as a retrofit supplementing electric resistance or natural gas heating — propane and fuel-oil conversions are also eligible. The conditions are strict and worth reading before you call anyone: the home must be a primary residence, not a new home; the system must not replace an existing heat pump; the contractor must be registered with Efficiency Manitoba; and the rebate application must be submitted within 90 days of installation. Efficiency Manitoba recommends an EnerGuide evaluation before sizing the system, and Manitoba Hydro's Home Energy Efficiency Loan can be combined with the rebate — but the loan application must go in before any work starts, including buying products.

For income-qualified Manitoba households, Efficiency Manitoba's Energy Efficiency Assistance Program goes further: free heat pumps for electrically heated homes, free insulation and smart thermostats, free energy-saving devices and assessments, and rebates on triple-pane windows and high-efficiency boilers. Check the program page for the income test.

Everywhere else

Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the territories all run their own utility or provincial rebate programs, and the amounts move too often to state safely from memory. The CGHAP page names Nova Scotia's HomeWarming program for lower-income households and a Newfoundland and Labrador program as live delivery routes for the federal no-cost retrofits. For everything else, the move is the same as for the price plan: open your utility's rebate page, confirm the program is open, and confirm the amount and the contractor rules before you spend. A rebate quoted by a salesperson, a neighbour, or an article from last year is not a rebate.

If money is tight, start with the no-cost doors

If the bill itself is the emergency, the order in this guide flips: assistance first, efficiency second. The doors that cost nothing to walk through are the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program (no-cost retrofits, low-to-median income, through your province), Ontario's OESP monthly credit and LEAP emergency grants, Ontario's Energy Affordability Program, Manitoba's Energy Efficiency Assistance Program, and Nova Scotia's HomeWarming program. None of these requires buying anything first, and none of them requires a contractor quote. Apply for the assistance, then use the efficiency programs to shrink the underlying use. If you are behind on payments, call the utility before the disconnection notice stage — Ontario's low-income customer-service rules include waived security deposits and longer payment times under arrears plans, and every utility has a hardship process that works far better when you call early.

The big upgrade, in the right order

When the free moves are done and a rebate is confirmed, spend in this order:

1. Air sealing and attic insulation. The cheapest envelope work, rebated in Ontario, BC, Quebec, and Manitoba under the programs above, and the work that makes every later upgrade smaller and cheaper.
2. An energy evaluation, where the program requires or rewards it. In Ontario's bundled path it is mandatory and comes first. In Manitoba it is recommended before sizing a heat pump. Elsewhere, a pre-retrofit EnerGuide evaluation tells you where the house actually loses heat instead of guessing.
3. The heating system. A cold-climate heat pump is the big lever for electrically heated and oil-heated homes. The buying, sizing, and rebate-stacking detail is in our companion guide — see the Related guides below — including the federal rebate that opens in early 2027 and the retroactivity date to keep in mind if your furnace fails this winter.
4. Windows last. Windows are the most expensive envelope upgrade per dollar of energy saved, and the rebates reflect that — $100 per opening in Ontario, for example. Do them when they are failing, draughty, or part of a renovation anyway, not as the first bill-cutting move.

One rule covers all four steps: never start work before the program's required assessment or pre-approval. The most expensive sentence in Canadian home retrofits is "we already installed it" said to a rebate program that needed paperwork first.

Watch out for rebate scams

Two official warnings, worth repeating because the pitches are active right now. Natural Resources Canada says it has not approved any third party to make unsolicited contact with homeowners to register them for the affordability program, and that the Government of Canada, NRCan, and its ENERGY STAR and EnerGuide brands never solicit by telephone or email or go door-to-door asking to enter homes to inspect, sell, or rent heating and cooling products. Hydro-Québec says the same about LogisVert: it never does telephone or door-to-door solicitation, and anyone offering an unsolicited LogisVert service on Hydro-Québec's behalf, without you having contacted them first, is probably running a scam. The safe rule: you contact the program, through the program's own website or published phone number. Nobody legitimate needs to come to your door to sign you up for a rebate.

The 30-minute checklist

• Read both bills: usage, plan name, Electricity vs Delivery lines, credits already applied.
• Set the thermostat schedule for sleep and away hours; seal the drafts you can feel.
• In Ontario, run your last twelve months against TOU, ULO, and Tiered at the November 1, 2026 prices — and be honest about your 4–9 p.m. weekday use before choosing ULO.
• Elsewhere, ask your utility for the plan comparison and the equal payment plan in the same call.
• Check the assistance doors first if money is tight: CGHAP through your province, OESP and LEAP in Ontario.
• Before any purchase: confirm the rebate is open, confirm your figure on the program page, confirm the contractor is registered, get pre-approval if required, and keep every invoice.
• If a heat pump is on the table, read the companion heat-pump guide and remember the federal rebate's November 1, 2026 retroactivity date — and that its portal does not open until early 2027.

Related guides

• How to Start Getting a Cheap Heat Pump in Canada: the companion buying guide — what heat pumps cost, the per-ton rebate math by province, pre-approval order, and stacking rules.
• How to Start Checking If Your BC Grant, Rebate, or Benefit Is Still There: BC programs open, close, and change amounts often — how to verify a BC rebate or benefit is still live before you plan around it.
• How to Start Getting Low-Cost Internet in Canada: the affordability sibling to this guide — if a household bill is unaffordable rather than merely high, the federal Connecting Families program and ISP low-income plans work the same assistance-first way.

Sources

• Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program (Natural Resources Canada) — no-cost retrofits for low-to-median-income homeowners and tenants, delivered directly by selected organizations; residents of British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec can now apply through their province, and the federal government accepts no household applications. The same page carries the scam warning: NRCan has not approved any third party to make unsolicited contact, and the government never solicits by phone, email, or door-to-door.
• National Heat Pump Rebate (Canada.ca) — a $2 billion investment supporting up to 820,000 households; the rebate opens through an online portal in early 2027 with no energy audit, pays $2,000 or up to $10,000 below the published median-income thresholds, and closes in March 2034. Installs on or after November 1, 2026 can claim retroactively if the heat pump is on the eligible-products list by AHRI number, was bought from and installed by an HVAC contractor, and no federal heat-pump funding was previously provided at that address; one rebate per household, receipts within six months, and no payment until the program launches and an application is approved.
• Electricity rates (Ontario Energy Board) — the November 1, 2026 prices: Time-of-Use 9.1 / 14.6 / 18.9 cents per kWh, Ultra-Low Overnight 3.7 overnight and 37.7 on weekday evenings, Tiered 11.2 / 13.2 with a 1,000 kWh winter and 600 kWh summer threshold; Ontario households use nearly two thirds of their electricity in off-peak hours; customers on a retailer contract pay the contract price plus the Global Adjustment on top.
• Backgrounder: Ontario Energy Board announces changes to electricity prices (Ontario Energy Board, October 16, 2026) — from November 1, 2026 the Ontario Electricity Rebate is 15.7%, worth about $23 a month for a typical residential customer using 700 kWh a month.
• Ontario Electricity Support Program (Ontario Energy Board) — monthly on-bill credits of $35 to $75 by household size and after-tax income, and $52 to $113 for Indigenous households, electrically heated homes, and homes using certain electricity-intensive medical devices; decisions in about 4 to 6 weeks, the credit in about 6 to 8 weeks; Ontario Works and ODSP recipients qualify automatically through their caseworker; LEAP emergency grants sit on the same page, as do the low-income customer rules on waived security deposits and longer arrears payment times.
• Home Renovation Savings, bundled-path rebates (Enbridge Gas / Save on Energy) — the assessment path: an initial assessment before any work, at least two upgrades, and a follow-up assessment; attic insulation to R-50 at $1,500 / $1,200 / $900, exterior wall $3,600 / $2,100 / $1,200, basement wall $1,500 / $900, windows and doors $100 per rough opening, air sealing $250 / $200, and a heat-pump water heater at $500.
• Home Renovation Savings, no-assessment upgrades (Enbridge Gas / Save on Energy) — the single-upgrade path: heat pumps up to $12,000 depending on the home's heating source, solar plus battery storage, attic insulation up to $1,250, smart thermostats, and appliances. Ontario heat-pump per-ton figures in this guide are per the live heat-pump guide and corroborating program coverage — verify your figure on this page before signing.
• Equal Monthly Payment Plan (Enbridge Gas) — the forecast yearly gas cost is divided into 12 installment payments, the plan is reviewed periodically and the installment adjusted if needed, and any difference beyond the average monthly billing rolls into the following year's plan; you only pay for the gas you use.
• Equal Payment Plan (FortisBC) — FortisBC's anticipated yearly energy bill divided into 12 equal payments for gas and electricity customers.
• BC Hydro heat-pump bonus (BC Hydro) — up to $4,000 for replacing an electric heating system with a heat pump and up to $12,500 across the usual renovation rebates, plus the $1,000 bonus for heat pumps installed and invoiced between August 1 and October 31, 2026; the contest ends November 30, 2026 or earlier if the bonus funding is reached. A high-efficiency heat pump delivers roughly two to three times more heat energy than the electricity it uses over a heating season and is up to 300% more efficient than electric baseboard heaters.
• LogisVert Efficient Homes Program (Hydro-Québec) — up to $6,700 for a heat pump, $1,500 for roof insulation and caulking, $250 for an induction range, $250 for a heat-pump dryer, up to $300 for an efficient pool pump, $250 per 1,000 BTU/h for a geothermal replacement, $1,000 per installed kilowatt for solar panels up to 40% of costs, $15,000 for an electric thermal storage system and $22,000 combined with a central heat pump, plus a 5% bonus for combining measures; air and ventilation leaks can account for up to 25% of a home's heat loss; the portal is available in French only, and Hydro-Québec never does telephone or door-to-door solicitation for the program.
• Air Source Heat Pump Rebate (Efficiency Manitoba) — $2,000 for a centrally ducted cold-climate air-source heat pump and $1,500 for a ductless system, as a retrofit supplementing electric resistance or natural gas heating (propane and fuel-oil conversions also eligible); the home must be a primary residence and not a new home, the system must not replace an existing heat pump, the contractor must be registered, and the application must be submitted within 90 days of installation; a pre-retrofit EnerGuide evaluation is recommended, and Manitoba Hydro's Home Energy Efficiency Loan must be applied for before any work starts.
• Energy Efficiency Assistance Program (Efficiency Manitoba) — free upgrades for income-qualifying households: free insulation, a free air-source or ground-source heat pump when replacing an electric heating system, free energy-saving devices and a smart thermostat, and a rebate for triple-pane windows.
• Energy Affordability Program FAQs (Save on Energy) — Ontario's income-eligible program: a free in-home energy assessment and no-cost upgrades, which can include a cold-climate heat pump for electrically heated homes, or a self-install energy-saving kit.

Confirm every amount on the program's own page before you commit money; amounts and availability change.