PSEG Long Island customers: check psegliny.com for current heat pump rebates.
Check cleanheat.ny.gov for current heat pump rebates.
Nassau County heats expensively. A huge share of the housing stock between Hempstead and the South Shore still burns oil delivered by truck, the electric grid is an island grid with island prices, and the winters are real. What most Nassau homeowners have not caught up to is that New York State is currently offering to pay the majority of a heat pump conversion, the offer is live in 2026, and on Long Island it runs through one administrator: PSEG Long Island.
This guide lays out every dollar, how it reaches your invoice, and the one procedural rule that decides whether you ever collect it.
The Headline Program: NYS Clean Heat
New York's heat pump incentive is NYS Clean Heat. For Hempstead, Levittown, Freeport, Long Beach, and every other Nassau address, the administrator is PSEG Long Island, because PSEG Long Island is the electric utility for the territory.
The 2026 numbers:
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Cost cap, standard tier | 70% of total project cost |
| Cost cap, enhanced | 85% in Disadvantaged Communities or Weatherized Tier |
| Eligible buildings | 1-4 unit homes (as of 1/1/2026) |
| Qualifying equipment | ccASHP on the NYS Clean Heat / NEEP-qualified list |
| Geothermal | Separate, higher incentive |
On smaller projects the percentage cap binds first; on larger whole-home conversions the household cap does. Either way, the state is offering to carry most of a qualifying installation before you pay a dollar.
PSEG Long Island is the administrator
On Long Island the program runs through PSEG Long Island. Check psegliny.com for the current terms before a quote treats any other utility as the payer. Our guide to choosing a Hempstead HVAC contractor treats a contractor who cannot name that utility as a reason to keep looking.
NYS Clean Heat arrives as a discount on the invoice before you pay.
The Rule That Decides Everything
You do not apply for this money. You do not front the cash and wait months for a rebate check. The participating contractor applies the discount to your invoice and handles the program paperwork. Which means a contractor who is not enrolled cannot deliver the incentive at all, no matter how sharp their price looks or how long they have worked your block. The first question for every Nassau bidder, before price, before brand: are you a NYS Clean Heat participating contractor?
A Levittown cape
Take an illustrative Levittown cape converting to a qualified-list cold-climate system:
Illustrative examples, not quotes. Real prices vary by house and system, and our installation cost guide breaks out the gross ranges by system type. The structure of the math, two caps with the lower one governing, holds from Valley Stream to Massapequa.
Equipment: The Qualified List Is the Gate
The full incentive pays only on cold-climate air-source heat pumps (ccASHP) that appear on the NYS Clean Heat / NEEP-qualified equipment list, ducted or ductless. This is not bureaucratic box-checking. Hempstead sits on a heating winter climate, and the qualified list exists to screen for machines that still deliver real heat on nights like that. Off-list equipment loses twice: winter performance and the incentive itself.
The equipment side has its own guide: the best cold-weather heat pumps for Hempstead covers what the low-temperature ratings mean and what to demand in writing on a quote.
Your Claim Path, Compressed
- Confirm your utility. Across Nassau, from Garden City to Oceanside, that is PSEG Long Island; the bill settles it.
- Read the source if you like: cleanheat.ny.gov and psegliny.com carry the program pages.
- Ask for a room-by-room load calculation before you compare quotes.
- Get two or three quotes, only from NYS Clean Heat participating contractors.
- Require the incentive as a line item on every quote: gross price, discount, net price.
That is the whole process. The contractor does the filing; your job is choosing a contractor who can, and holding every bid to the same written standard so the discounts are comparable across the table rather than promised in the air. If you currently heat with oil, as an enormous share of Nassau still does, run the operating math too: the oil comparison guide covers what the switch does to a winter's spend.
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