Incentive program providers often have specific eligibility requirements related to a home’s current heating system. Understanding these criteria is key to qualifying for rebates.

This guide provides an overview of common heating systems and how these details are displayed within the Rock Rabbit platform to help you navigate eligibility with confidence.

Many programs have requirements around the existing heating source of a home to qualify for their incentives. Common requirements include:

Program requirements for existing heat sources are listed on the incentive card and key eligibility requirements table in the Rock Rabbit app, and are also available for our API customers.

Read on to learn more about common existing heat sources that you’ll find in a home.

This list does not include auxiliary heating sources, like plug-in radiators or plug-in fireplaces, which are not normally used as a primary heat source.

Central forced air furnaces can be gas or electrically powered. The central furnace component moves heat throughout the house via ducts or vents. These systems can heat entire homes from one furnace, but they don’t allow you to adjust the temperature room-to-room.

Wall furnaces are self contained units that are mounted into the wall of a room. They only control the temperature of the space that they’re installed in, which are usually smaller. Most wall furnaces have a fan that circulates hot air in the zone they’re installed in.

Boilers make hot water or steam to circulate through pipes to warm a home. The hot water or steam that a boiler produces is delivered to baseboards, radiators, heated floors or fan coil units. Some boilers are combined or “combi” systems that can be used for domestic hot water in addition to space heating.

Radiators are made of conductive metals like cast iron, steel, or aluminum. After a radiator is warmed up from hot water or steam from a boiler, it gradually radiates heat.

Baseboard heaters are mounted to the floor and use radiant heating to warm the room they’re installed in. They can rely on circulating steam, hot water or warming electric coils to create heat.

Radiant floor heating also uses electric coils or hot water lines embedded directly into the floor to heat a room. Radiant heating panels can also be installed in the walls or ceiling, but these systems are more rare because they are less efficient than floor heating.

Fan coil radiant heating combines the principles of radiant and forced air heating. The system uses a fan to circulate air over hot water or steam pipes and then distributes the warmed air throughout the room. This can increase the speed of heating of traditional radiant heat sources and offer zone to zone temperature control.

Fireplaces can use wood, pellets, or electrically powered metal coils to produce heat. Fireplaces are different from a wood stove because they are embedded into a wall of the home.

Wood or pellet stoves are more common in rural areas and burn wood or pellets to create heat. They are free-standing and can be situated anywhere in a room with adequate ventilation.