Mass Save isn't a company — it's a collaborative program run by Massachusetts utilities. HEARTWAP is a separate state-administered fund. First Light is neither of those — we're an independent, HPIN-enrolled contractor and consulting firm that knows how to navigate both, plus the network of agencies and Lead Vendors that sit between homeowners and the money. Right now, that mostly means emergency heating repair and replacement through HEARTWAP, and Mass Save-driven heat pump installs through our HPIN enrollment. We're actively working toward Mass Save's Home Performance Contractor (HPC) status — the tier that lets us run a full whole-home retrofit directly, instead of coordinating pieces through other Lead Vendors. Whichever stage we're at, the job is the same: know exactly where yours sits in that system, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks between agencies — so you're never the one stuck holding the paperwork.

A full list of current Mass Save rebates can be found here — covering heat pumps, water heating, insulation, appliances, EV charging, and 0% financing.

NEHPA (New England Heat Pump Accelerator) is a five-state, EPA-funded program that discounts qualifying cold-climate heat pumps and heat pump water heaters at the distributor level. On paper, the savings should show up as a discount on your contractor's invoice, not a rebate check you wait months for — but on paper isn't the same as in practice. It only comes off your bill if your contractor is actually buying from a participating distributor and doing the work to apply it. Most of the time, that's not happening — either the contractor isn't set up for it, or the savings just never get passed down.

It can — but it takes a contractor who's set up for it and actually does the legwork. Most aren't, and most don't, which is why homeowners are so used to hearing about a "rebate" that turns into a form to fill out after the fact instead of money that was never on the invoice to begin with. That's the gap First Light's network and distributor relationships are built to close — we work to get incentives applied up front rather than leaving it to the homeowner to chase down. Between NEHPA, Mass Save, and everything else we track for a given job, there are plenty of cases where a homeowner ends up paying nothing out of pocket at all.

No, but most contractors only know Mass Save, so it's usually the only one you'll hear about. A couple worth knowing: having a municipal light plant for electric doesn't automatically mean you're locked out of Mass Save — it depends on your gas sponsor too. Hull, for example, has its own municipal light plant for electric, but National Grid supplies the gas, so Hull homeowners still get Mass Save rebates. It's only when neither your electric nor your gas is served by a Mass Save sponsor that you're fully outside the program and relying on your town's own rebate offering instead. And if you're installing a ground-source (geothermal) system, there's a state incentive that layers on top of what Mass Save already pays. Federal tax credits, on the other hand, are gone as of 2026 — so anything a contractor is still quoting you off an old federal credit is out of date. First Light checks what actually applies to your specific address and system before quoting, instead of assuming Mass Save is the whole picture.

The 0% HEAT Loan covers up to $25,000 over up to 7 years, with no fees — and it's not an either/or with your rebates, it's a layer underneath them. Rebates cut the cost; the loan covers whatever's left, interest-free, so you're not paying that remainder out of pocket upfront. Most contractors mention the loan as a last resort if you push back on price — First Light builds it into your plan from the start if it makes sense for your situation, not as a fallback pitch.

It depends on your eligibility tier, and First Light tells you which one applies before any work starts, not after. On a fully-funded job, program dollars pay the contractor directly and you pay nothing. On a rebate-based job, either the rebate gets applied at the point of sale so your invoice already reflects it, or you pay upfront and get reimbursed — and we tell you up front which of those two it'll be, so there's no surprise about money moving through your own account.

Most homes land in one of three tiers: fully covered, an enhanced rebate for moderate-income households, or the standard Mass Save rebate everyone qualifies for regardless of income. If you don't land in the top tier, you're not shut out — you're just in a different lane, and the 0% HEAT Loan is often the piece that makes the remaining cost a non-issue either way.

It really depends on what you qualify for and what your home actually needs — there's no single fixed scope that applies to every household. Once we know your eligibility tier and walk your home, the project can draw from any combination of: weatherization (air sealing and insulation), barrier remediation (identifying blockers like knob-and-tube wiring, moisture, or asbestos), heating & cooling (heat pumps, furnace and boiler repair/replacement), electrical (panel upgrades, rewiring, code corrections), masonry (chimney repair, French drains, sump pumps), roofing & windows, ductwork & ventilation, water heating & plumbing, and finish & cleanup (patch, paint, and site restoration — even after another contractor's work). Some homes only need one or two of these. Others need several working together — which is exactly the kind of project First Light is built to coordinate under one roof, instead of you managing separate contractors for each piece.

Yes — that's the whole point of the network. If your project needs weatherization and electrical and a chimney repair, those don't get scheduled as three separate jobs with three separate contractors you have to coordinate yourself. First Light sequences the trades so they happen in the right order and don't step on each other — insulation doesn't go in before an electrical hazard is cleared, roofing doesn't wait behind a masonry fix that could've run in parallel. You get one project timeline, not three you're stitching together on your own.

No. First Light uses LiDAR scanning to build an actual 3D layout of your home, then cross-references your historical utility data to confirm what weatherization upgrades have already been done — insulation, air sealing, windows — before we run your load calculation. Most contractors skip this and outsource the calc to someone who never sets foot in your house, working off a few vague measurements and no idea what's already been upgraded. That's how you end up with an oversized system that costs more, runs less efficiently, and never delivers the savings you were promised. Ours comes out ACCA-approved, based on your home as it actually is today.

The way we found it. Most contractors leave holes every few feet along the wall to blow in insulation, then hand the homeowner the job of patching, priming, and repainting the whole room back to normal. First Light's post-installation crews close and finish every access point before we leave — patching, priming, and painting is on us, not you.

Only if the ducts feeding it are sealed and clean. Most HVAC installers show up, hang the new equipment, and never check the ductwork carrying the air. If those ducts are leaking or full of years of buildup, you paid for a high-efficiency system and you're still not getting the airflow it was designed to deliver. First Light's duct cleaning and sealing crews make sure the ductwork matches the investment before we call the job done.

They should. Air sealing a home without testing for combustion safety and backdrafting afterward can leave a real risk behind — especially with gas appliances still in place. When applicable, First Light runs blower door and combustion safety testing as part of the process, not as an afterthought.

That depends on whether it was actually registered. Most contractors install the system and walk away — and years later, homeowners find out a part that should've been covered under warranty was never registered with the manufacturer. That's a repair bill landing on you at the worst possible time. First Light handles registration as part of the install, so you're not left cold and without the funds to fix it when you need it most.

This is the part most homeowners never get walked through — and it's the difference between actually being covered and thinking you're covered. A standard manufacturer's warranty covers the cost of the parts if something fails, but not the labor to diagnose and replace them. On a Daikin system, that gap is closed by the ASURE Extended Service Plan — a factory-backed labor warranty (6 or 12-year terms) that covers the technician's time on a covered repair, with no deductible. Without it, a homeowner can have a "fully warrantied" system and still get handed a labor bill on the repair. Most contractors don't walk customers through this distinction at the time of install — First Light does, and makes sure the ASURE coverage is in place so you're not caught off guard by a bill that shouldn't exist.

Yes. And every install can vary — because your home isn't a template, and we're not going to treat it like one.

There's no fixed number, and that's on purpose. Most contractors are built to move you through as fast as possible — get in, get the equipment up, get to the next job. First Light isn't. If our team finds a barrier or a piece of remediation that should be addressed while we're already there, we're not going to walk past it to hit a schedule — we're going to make sure you get everything you're eligible for while we're in your home, not after. Same goes if a program update or a new incentive becomes available partway through the job — we'll bring it to you instead of letting it pass because the paperwork was already started. The job takes as long as it takes to do it right and make sure you have it all.