Clean Air Programme 2026 in Poland — July 20 changes and sizing a heat pump for the grant

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Since July 20, 2026, Poland's Clean Air (Czyste Powietrze) programme has been running under the first package of changes since the March 2025 reform. For an installation designer or energy auditor the key points are that the unit rates for thermal retrofit works have changed, so has the schedule for investments with prefinancing, and from 2027 electric heating other than heat pumps drops out of the programme. The grant amounts for heat pumps themselves have not changed — and that is exactly where most of the confusion has built up.

What exactly changed in the programme on July 20, 2026?

The new rules apply to applications submitted from July 20, 2026. The package covers five areas.

1. Property ownership rules. The baseline requirement of having owned the property for at least three years remains, but the list of exceptions has been extended. Acquisition by adverse possession is now treated the same way as inheritance. The shortened one-year ownership period applies to people holding at least 50% of the shares in the property who acquired it by purchase (for example on the secondary market) or by donation or a life estate contract from parents, grandparents or other ascendants. The rules for units created by splitting or merging have also been clarified. The one-property-per-beneficiary rule is unchanged.

2. Thermal retrofit rates up by 10%. The increase covers insulation of walls and other building envelope elements, and the replacement of windows, external doors and garage doors.

Works accompanying window installation are settled at PLN 53 / 92 / 132 per m², but that amount is included in the window limit rather than added to it.

3. Prefinancing — 180 days instead of 120. Beneficiaries using an advance payment now have 180 days to complete the works it covers, plus a further 30 days to file the payment request settling the advance.

4. Easier paperwork. Confirmation that the old heat source has been permanently disconnected and that the chimney flues have been adapted can now be issued not only by a master chimney sweep but also by a person holding the relevant building qualifications. In addition, applicants working with an operator can now prepare draft applications themselves in the grant application generator.

5. The ZUM list and the end of grants for electric heating. It has been clarified that a device suspended or removed from the ZUM list before the final invoice is issued remains eligible, provided it was on the list on the date of the advance invoice. More important for planning, though, is the announcement that from 2027 the programme will no longer support electric heating other than heat pumps — heating mats, electric boilers and electric radiators drop out.

The foundations of the March 31, 2025 reform remain in place: the mandatory energy audit and energy performance certificate, the operator system, eligible cost limits, the "one beneficiary – one building" rule, no grants for gas boilers, and the existing funding levels and income criteria.

What is the heat pump grant really worth?

This is where the thresholds get mixed up most often. The funding level itself follows from income alone — how energy-intensive the building is does not change it. The useful energy demand acts as an additional condition: it determines the permitted scope of works and whether the highest level is available at all. The maximum amount is therefore the result of three things at once — the funding level, the type of heat pump and the building's demand indicator. The table below shows the variants for the most energy-intensive buildings, above 140 kWh/(m²·year), with a heat pump of increased energy efficiency class.

Two things are worth remembering from this table, because the trade press regularly gets them wrong:

• PLN 170,100 is the ground source variant at the highest level, not a universal "heat pump" figure. For an air-to-water pump the highest level is PLN 140,300, and PLN 98,210 corresponds to the increased level.
• The highest level requires, on top of the income criterion, a building with demand above 140 kWh/(m²·year). For buildings below 80 and in the 80–140 kWh/(m²·year) range the highest level is marked "not applicable" — even on the lowest incomes only the basic and increased levels remain, with correspondingly lower amounts.

The unit amounts for the device itself are PLN 18,000 / 31,500 / 45,000 for a ground source heat pump (plus PLN 8,000 / 14,000 / 20,000 for the ground loop) and PLN 14,080 / 24,640 / 35,200 for an air-to-water pump. The rest of the maximum amount covers the heating and hot water installation, documentation and thermal retrofit works.

Income thresholds for the levels are unchanged: the basic level up to PLN 135,000 of annual income, the increased level at monthly income up to PLN 2,250 per person in a multi-person household (PLN 3,150 in a single-person household), and the highest level up to PLN 1,300 per person (PLN 1,800 in a single-person household) or with an established entitlement to the listed social benefits.

How do the funding thresholds affect heat pump sizing?

Counterintuitively — not at all. The programme contains no power threshold above which the grant increases. The amount depends on the funding level, the type of pump, the energy efficiency class and whether the device is on the ZUM list on the invoice date. Sizing is therefore a purely engineering task, and there is no reason to inflate it for the grant.

This has a practical consequence worth stating plainly to the client: oversizing the pump will not increase the grant, it will only degrade the installation. An oversized pump cycles at part load, lowers the seasonal coefficient of performance and shortens compressor life. An undersized one will fall back on the electric heater, which quickly eats the grant savings at current electricity tariffs.

Capacity is derived from the design heat load calculated to EN 12831, not from floor area and certainly not from the rating of the old boiler, which was as a rule heavily oversized. We covered the method step by step in the article on calculating building heat loss, and you can check individual envelope elements in the U-value calculator.

The order matters too. If the project includes a thermal retrofit, the pump must be sized for the building after insulation, not before. For a building coming out of the above-140 kWh/(m²·year) range the difference can easily be several kilowatts — a whole equipment class and a five-figure sum.

Do heat losses need to be recalculated before applying?

Yes — and in two different ways that should not be confused.

An energy audit with its summary document and an energy performance certificate are mandatory in the programme. The audit gives the useful energy demand for heating in kWh/(m²·year), and that figure determines which scope of works is permitted at all and whether the building qualifies for the highest level.

The design heat load in kW is an entirely different number — calculated for the design outdoor temperature of the climate zone, and it is the one used to size the pump and the radiators. The audit does not replace it. In practice that means two sets of calculations for the same building, and it is worth telling the client so when quoting the work.

Radiators after swapping a solid fuel boiler for a heat pump

This is the most frequently overlooked part of the application. Radiators in houses heated by solid fuel boilers were typically sized for flow and return around 75/65°C. A heat pump works efficiently at 35–45°C flow, and with that drop in the temperature difference between radiator and room the same radiator delivers markedly less heat.

The consequence is simple: either some radiators have to be replaced with larger ones, or the pump will have to run at higher temperatures, cutting efficiency and raising bills. You can recalculate existing radiators for the new flow parameters in the radiator sizing calculator — just set the new flow and return temperatures to see which radiators fall out of the balance.

What does 180-day prefinancing change for the schedule?

Prefinancing is available only at the increased and highest levels, and only through an operator. The advance is paid out before the investment starts, based on a disbursement instruction and the contractor's advance invoice.

Extending the deadline from 120 to 180 days genuinely changes planning:

• Boreholes for the ground loop stop being the bottleneck. Six months accommodate the full cycle — drilling, testing, installation and commissioning — even if the works start in an unfavourable season.
• A thermal retrofit before the heat source is installed becomes feasible within a single settlement cycle, which matches the recommended order of works: first cut the losses, then size the pump for the insulated building.
• After the works are finished there are another 30 days for the payment request settling the advance.
• The longer deadline is also available to people who signed their contract earlier, in the call running from March 31, 2025 — this requires amending the contract.

What design documentation is required now?

The scope of documentation for the highest level did not change on July 20 — what changed is who may issue part of it:

• an energy audit with its summary document and an energy performance certificate — mandatory in every variant,
• confirmation that the old heat source has been permanently disconnected and that the chimney flues have been adapted — since July 20 this can be issued by a master chimney sweep or by a person with the relevant building qualifications,
• a device from the ZUM list — the pump must be on the list on the invoice date, and the higher unit rates require an increased energy efficiency class.

The full list of attachments is in the programme documents applicable to the call from July 20, 2026 — worth verifying before submitting, as it is the only binding source.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Do the July 20, 2026 changes apply to applications already submitted?
The new rules apply to applications submitted from July 20, 2026. Only one element works retroactively — the 180-day deadline for completing works covered by an advance is also available to people with a contract from the call running since March 31, 2025, after amending the contract.

What heat pump capacity qualifies for the highest grant?
None in particular — the programme has no capacity threshold. What counts is the funding level derived from income, the building's useful energy demand (the highest level only above 140 kWh/(m²·year)), the type of pump, and its presence on the ZUM list together with an increased energy efficiency class.

Do heat loss calculations have to be submitted with the application?
Yes, in the form of an energy audit with its summary document and an energy performance certificate. The audit reports useful energy demand in kWh/(m²·year), whereas pump capacity is derived from the design heat load in kW to EN 12831 — two different numbers, and both have to be calculated.

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