What it does. Ten yes/no checks across electrical, envelope, contract, documentation, and cash. Score your shop’s readiness for rebate heat pump projects and print a tailored action plan.
Three-Trade Readiness Scorecard
Electrical Bench
The trade most likely to stall your install.
Envelope Bench
Programs increasingly want insulation and air sealing first.
Contract & Schedule
The homeowner called you. Every delay reads as your delay.
Documentation
Every bounced submission is another truck roll.
Cash
Floating rebates makes you the bank.
Your Readiness
Answer all 10 checks
Work through the five sections above. Your verdict and a tailored action plan appear here.
Detailed Overview
Rebate-eligible heat pump work has quietly turned into project management: energy assessments, weatherization crews, panel questions, program documentation, and reimbursement waits, all wrapped around a two-day install. This scorecard asks ten yes/no questions across the five dimensions where those projects go sideways, scores each dimension, and builds an action plan from every gap it finds.
Purpose
Most shops discover they were not ready for three-trade work one job at a time: an electrician who cannot come for three weeks, a bounced photo submission, a contract with no delay clause, a float balance nobody was tracking. Each of those is predictable, and each has a cheap fix if it happens before the job instead of during it. The scorecard exists to run that discovery in five minutes at a desk instead of five months in the field.
When and Where to Use It
- Before marketing instant rebates or bidding your first program-tied heat pump job.
- At the start of heating season, as a pre-flight check on operations.
- After a rough rebate job, to turn the post-mortem into specific fixes.
- Quarterly, since programs, code adoption, and your bench all change.
- As a team exercise: have the office and the lead installer score it separately and compare.
How to Use It in Two Minutes
- Answer the two questions in each of the five sections: Electrical Bench, Envelope Bench, Contract and Schedule, Documentation, and Cash. Yes or No, honestly.
- Watch the per-dimension bars fill as you go. Green is 2/2, amber is 1/2, red is 0/2.
- Read the verdict once all ten are answered: 9 to 10 is rebate ready, 6 to 8 is exposed, 5 or under means fix the list before selling rebate work.
- Every No generates a specific action item. Use the Print action plan button to put the list on paper; the print view strips the questions and keeps the plan.
Outputs
- Score out of 10 with a per-dimension breakdown (electrical, envelope, contract, documentation, cash).
- Verdict in three tiers, worded for a business owner deciding whether to scale rebate volume.
- Tailored action plan: one concrete step per gap, such as adding a load calculation to the estimate checklist, writing a delay clause, or starting a float ledger.
- Printable plan via the built-in print stylesheet.
Context: Where This Tool Lives in HKIA’s Content
- Built to accompany the Business Edition article “Your Heat Pump Job Is Now a Three-Trade Project,” which explains each dimension in depth.
- Pairs with “Instant Rebates: The Kitchen-Table Advantage Nobody Is Using,” since the sales advantage assumes the delivery side can keep its promises.
- The cash dimension points directly to the Rebate Job Float Calculator, which quantifies the reserve question the scorecard only asks.
- Complements “Building Science Is a Business Model, Not a Certificate” and “HVAC Install Standards That Command Premium Pricing” on the standards side.
Math & Logic
Each question scores one point for Yes. Dimensions hold two questions each, so the five bars read 0/2, 1/2, or 2/2. Verdict thresholds: 9 to 10 ready, 6 to 8 exposed, 0 to 5 not ready. The thresholds are deliberately strict because each question maps to a documented failure mode: panel surprises kill sales (typical upgrade runs $1,500 to $4,500), bounced documentation costs return truck rolls (fully loaded truck cost runs $84.40 per hour per ACCA analysis), program waits run 4 to 8 published weeks, and the NEC 210.8(F) GFCI exception for listed HVAC equipment expires September 1, 2026 in jurisdictions on the 2020 or 2023 NEC without amendments. The action items are fixed text mapped one-to-one to the ten questions; the tool stores nothing and sends nothing.
Limitations
- Self-reported. The scorecard is only as honest as the answers.
- Ten questions cannot capture program-specific requirements; always read your program’s current bulletin.
- The electrical and code items flag risk, they do not determine compliance. Jurisdiction NEC adoption varies; confirm locally.
- No persistence: answers reset on page reload by design. Print the plan if you want to keep it.
Sources Used
- U.S. Department of Energy, Home Energy Rebates Program Notice 26-2, 2026.
- NYSERDA, NYS Clean Heat program documentation (weatherized tier, 2026).
- Mass Save, program requirements (home energy assessment prerequisite).
- NFPA, National Electrical Code Section 210.8(F) Exception No. 2.
- Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), contractor financial analysis, 2025.
- Pecan Street and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, residential panel capacity research.