City of Sacramento

Overview

The City of Sacramento and SMUD will deploy heat pump installations, home repairs, and retrofits for at least 25 low-income single-family homeowners in conjunction with the City’s anti-displacement and home rehabilitation program. This pilot program will provide further insights on how to best layer heat pump incentives with other energy equity programs.

Research Questions:

• How can a city, municipal utility, and community-based organization partner to increase heat pump adoption?
• How can this partnership bring the benefits of whole-home electrification to low-income homeowners while simultaneously promoting neighborhood stabilization and maximizing community co-benefits?

Market Barrier

As with any significant home improvement, the cost of heat pump deployment can also result in the displacement of the most financially vulnerable households, creating legitimate concerns over further incentivizing building electrification.

Proposed Solution

The pilot will integrate heat pump technology deployment as part of an existing anti-displacement and home rehabilitation program. Selected households living with limited incomes will receive heat pump space heating and cooling and/or heat pump water heaters in addition to a suite of other electrification and energy efficiency measures to reduce energy burden and improve thermal comfort.

Theory of Change

By reducing energy bills for low-income homeowners through high-efficiency heat pump deployment, the project will further awareness and trust of heat pump technology among households facing significant barriers to heat pump adoption. The pilot project also seeks to demonstrate how anti-displacement and building decarbonization efforts can pair with and bolster each other.

Project Status:

In progress

Housing Type:

Single-family homeowners at risk of displacement and whose primary language is not English.

Technology:

HPWH and HP HVAC

Location:

Zip codes surrounding the Aggie Square area, in conjunction with the University of California at Davis's newly planned university campus development expansion.