ISDE 2026 for heat pump and air conditioning installers: what is changing, and what that means for your applications
No scheme drives the search demand in this trade as strongly as the ISDE, the Dutch government's subsidy for sustainable energy and energy saving. Six things changed in 2026, two of which lower the amount your customer receives and one of which removes an entire category of appliances from the scheme. This article sets those six changes out on a readable change sheet, shows how the amount is built up from a starting amount plus an amount per kilowatt, explains the F-gas gate that trips up split units, and describes how you turn all of that into a page that brings in enquiries all year round. Every amount comes from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and carries the date it was checked.
- Unzip it into
~/.claude/skills/(or.claude/skills/in your project). - Claude then recognises the skill by its topic automatically.
- You can also call it directly, with
/isde-toestelcheck.
- Go to Customize and then Skills.
- Upload the zip there as a skill.
- Or paste the contents of SKILL.md into the project instructions of a Project.
- Open
AGENTS.mdin your repo. - Paste the contents of SKILL.md into it, or put SKILL.md alongside it as a separate file and reference it from
AGENTS.md. - Codex reads that along with every session.
What has actually changed in 2026
reg. IN.001This is not a summary of a press release but a readable change sheet: what has been added, what has been removed and what has been relaxed. Everything below is on RVO's own page about what changes to the ISDE in 2026, checked on 18 August 2026.
The subsidy is your biggest source of traffic, even if you never apply for it
In this trade, search demand is largely driven by a scheme you have no say over. The moment anything changes about the ISDE, what people type changes with it. This is not theory: subsidy amounts, conditions and whether the budget has run out yet are topics people in the Netherlands search for all year round, with peaks whenever there is news about it. An installation company that publishes nothing about this lets that whole stream pass it by, and then pays per click for the far more expensive question of who can install a heat pump.
The objection we hear most often is understandable: I am an installer, not a subsidy adviser, and if I write about it I get questions I am not paid to answer. That is true, but it is solvable. You do not have to promise an application service. What you can do is explain exactly how the scheme fits together, which amounts belong to it, when you apply and why the installation cannot be done under your own management. That answers the question, and the visitor who wants to do it themselves is not a lost visitor but someone who knows where they read it.
There is also a sales argument in this that often gets skipped over
The ISDE application is supposed to happen after installation, within the deadline RVO sets, and the appliance's reporting code must be on the invoice. Exactly the kind of detail that makes a customer nervous, and the kind that ultimately decides which installer they choose. State on your site that you put that reporting code on the invoice as standard, and you have a concrete, checkable difference from the provider who only talks about efficiency.
The pitfall on the other side is just as real: a page with outdated amounts does more harm than no page at all
Amounts change every year and the budget can run out. Always add the date you checked it, link through to the official page, and set a fixed reminder in January to review it. We do the same in our own knowledge base, and it costs ten minutes per page per year. Ten minutes you earn back the moment someone calls you with an amount they read somewhere else.
Starting amount plus capacity, this is how it adds up
reg. IN.002The way the amount for a first air-to-water heat pump is built up is simpler than most quotes present it: a fixed starting amount plus an amount per kilowatt of capacity. Below is what that adds up to for four common capacities. The blue bar is the starting amount, the lighter bar the part that comes from the capacity.
The F-gas rule is not a detail, it is a selection criterion
Of all the changes in 2026, one is the most underestimated, and at the same time it offers the most edge to an installer who does understand it: split air-to-water heat pumps with a refrigerant charge under 3 kilograms and a GWP above 750 fall outside the scheme. That follows from the European rules on fluorinated greenhouse gases, and it affects a share of appliances that simply counted up until last year.
A consumer cannot possibly keep track of that
They see two quotes with comparable appliances and comparable prices, and only after installation do they discover that one qualifies for subsidy and the other does not. Annoying, and exactly the sort of story that does the rounds through reviews and the neighbourhood. For you it is the opposite: an opportunity. If you state explicitly on your site and in your quote which refrigerant is in the appliance, what its GWP is and whether the appliance falls within the scheme, you are giving an assurance your competitor is not giving.
In practice that means three things
One: record, per appliance in your range, what the refrigerant is, what the charge is and whether it is a monobloc or a split unit. Two: put that information visibly on your website, not in a PDF and not only in the manufacturer's datasheet, because an assistant comparing on a searcher's behalf only reads what is readable as text. Three: include it in your quote as a separate line, so the customer sees it immediately when comparing two quotes.
It also belongs in your advert copy, because there is room there for exactly this kind of distinction
An advert that says you only install appliances that qualify for the scheme, and that you put the reporting code on the invoice, is more concrete than the word professional repeated ten times. How to build that kind of copy without going over the character limit is covered in advert copy for tradespeople NL.
Two appliances, two outcomes
reg. IN.003The rule from DOC.02, in a picture. The question the gate asks is not which brand or which efficiency, but whether the appliance is a split unit with a small refrigerant charge and a refrigerant with a high global warming potential. A two-minute check that makes a difference of thousands of euros, and one that almost nobody carries out.
Three kinds of visitors, and why they do not deserve the same bid
The demand that reaches an installation company falls into three clearly different groups, and it pays to keep them apart in your campaign and on your site. The first group is the subsidy searcher. They type in something with the word subsidy, ISDE or amount in it. They are orienting, not comparing anything yet, and not planning to call any time soon. An advert that sends them to a quote page wastes money. A page that answers their question and then offers a calculator or a call-back request keeps hold of them.
The second group is the system chooser
They are torn between all-electric and hybrid, between air-to-water and ground source, or between insulating and replacing. This is where the highest order value and the longest decision period sit. They do not want a price, they want a trade-off weighed up, and they respond well to a company that honestly says all-electric might not be the best choice for their home. In areas with grid congestion, that is not a sales trick, by the way, it is the reality, and you win that conversation in the advert, not only at the table.
The third group is the breakdown searcher
They have an appliance that has stopped working, or an air conditioner that will not cool in the first warm week. They do not compare, they call the first one who picks up. The most expensive click and the cheapest customer, provided you answer. Only run the advert for this group during the hours someone is genuinely on the phone, and add a fixed call-out fee if you have one. Anyone who reaches voicemail after three rings just calls the next one on the list.
Those three groups need three different landing pages and three different maximum bids
Bidding on the breakdown searcher can be high, because the odds of it turning into a job are good. Bidding on the subsidy searcher needs to be low, because there is a lot of noise in it and the road to a job is long. How to let those bids move automatically without losing control is covered in bid strategy for tradespeople NL.
Certification as advert copy, not as a footnote
In the Netherlands, working on an installation with fluorinated refrigerants requires certification of both the company and the engineer. For you that is a given; for your customer it is an unfamiliar fact. That is exactly why it is a strong sales argument: it sets you apart from providers who do not have it, it is checkable, and it is one of the few things in this trade you can state as fact without promising a result.
So do not tuck it away in a bar of logos at the bottom of the page; put it in the first paragraph of your services page and in the heading of your advert
State what you hold, state what it means, and state why it matters to the customer: installed legally, a valid guarantee, and no hassle with the insurer if anything ever goes wrong. Never pretend a certificate is a quality guarantee; it is a legal requirement. Naming that difference honestly makes you more credible than talking it up.
The same applies to your membership of a trade association, to any recognition scheme, and to the guarantee periods you offer
Together, all of that is what a visitor weighs up in a few seconds with three sites open side by side. Our broader explanation of how to build that trust signal is in the guide to local SEO for installation companies NL, including how to make it visible on your Google Business Profile too.
One last, practical note
Put your certifications on the site as plain text too, not only in an image or a PDF of the certificate. Increasingly, an assistant answers the question of which certified installer is nearby, and that assistant does not read a logo. How that works and what to do about it is described in getting found in AI Overviews and ChatGPT NL.
Grid congestion: an objection that can become a sales argument
In a growing part of the Netherlands, the question is no longer whether an all-electric solution is technically possible, but whether the grid can handle it. Grid operators have been warning for several years that parts of the country are hitting their limits, and Gelderland is one of the areas where that plays out. For an installer, that is not a problem but a sorting mechanism: it turns the choice between hybrid and all-electric into a real, local trade-off rather than a product preference.
Most companies stay quiet about it, because it feels like an objection
A mistake, and a costly one. A customer who reads online that there are waiting lists, and then gets an honest account from you of what is and is not possible in their street, trusts you more than the company that says it is all not that bad. And in many homes, hybrid is the wiser first step anyway, certainly in a moderately insulated house where the radiators are not designed for low-temperature operation.
So set out, per service area, on your site what you know about it: which grid operator is active there, where you run into constraints, and what you then advise
Local information that a national quote site can never deliver, and exactly the kind of content a page per location deserves, rather than a page per location with only a different heading. We build those pages for this trade at heat pump installers in Arnhem NL, heat pump installers in Nijmegen NL and heat pump installers in Apeldoorn NL, each with its own local story.
What you should not do is sell through fear
No heading saying the grid is full and you need to act now. Grid congestion is a technical fact with a local effect, not a deadline. The honest story is strong enough without building urgency around it that is not there.
The subsidy page that actually works, in six blocks
Concrete, so you can write it this week. Block one: what the scheme is and who it is for, in four sentences. Block two: how the amount is built up, so starting amount plus amount per kilowatt, using the scale from FIG.02 as an example. Block three: the conditions that affect the customer, including that the application happens after installation, that the installation may not be done under your own management, and that the reporting code belongs on the invoice.
Block four: what changed this year, with the six points from FIG.01
This block in particular is what sets your page apart, because almost nobody keeps track of it. Block five: the pitfalls, including the F-gas gate from FIG.03 and whether the budget is still sufficient. Block six: what you do and what the customer does themselves, kept crystal clear, with a next step that suits someone who is still doing the sums.
Add a visible list of questions at the bottom with the five questions you get most often, and mark it up with FAQPage structured data
The same technique as on this page, and the shortest route to visibility in both Google's results page and an AI answer. Our explanation of that is in technical SEO NL.
And measure it
Set up a filter in Search Console for search terms containing the word subsidy, and check after eight weeks what comes in. If traffic arrives but no enquiries, the next step is wrong; if nothing comes in, the page is too generic. Want a second pair of eyes? Our free SEO scan reads a page and states what is there and what is missing, at no cost to you.
Where these figures come from
Every amount, threshold and change in this article comes from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO), specifically from the ISDE pages for homeowners and from RVO's page on what changes to the ISDE in 2026. Both were checked on 18 August 2026. That is where you find the €1,025 starting amount and the €225 per kilowatt, the removal of the starting amount and the energy label bonus for a second or further air-to-water heat pump, the exclusion of split air-to-water appliances with a refrigerant charge under 3 kilograms and a GWP above 750, the one-off €400 for an energy-efficient ventilation system combined with insulation, the removal of the Uf requirement for window frames, and the raised maximum insulation value for listed-building glazing.
The exclusion of certain split air-to-water appliances follows from the European regulation on fluorinated greenhouse gases
The certification requirement for working on installations with those refrigerants follows from the same European legislation and from its Dutch implementation: article 4 of the Dutch Decree on fluorinated greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances (Besluit gefluoreerde broeikasgassen en ozonlaagafbrekende stoffen) prohibits acting against the certification articles of the F-gas Regulation, checked on 25 August 2026. Which certificates apply to your company is something you verify with your certifying body, not with us.
On grid congestion: that parts of the Netherlands are hitting the limits of the grid has been reported repeatedly by the national and regional grid operators
We deliberately do not name a specific number of postcode areas or a waiting list on this page, because those figures change from month to month. Check the current congestion map of the grid operator for your own service area, and put that outcome on your own page, with a date.
What we do not do: state amounts without a source, promise a payback period, or suggest that a subsidy is guaranteed to be awarded
The ISDE has a budget and an assessment, and both are beyond your influence and ours.
Frequently asked questions about the ISDE in 2026
How is the ISDE amount for a heat pump built up?
For a first air-to-water heat pump, the amount consists of a fixed starting amount plus an amount per kilowatt of capacity. In 2026 that starting amount is €1,025, adjusted down from €1,250, and the amount per kilowatt is €225. For a small appliance, the starting amount therefore makes up roughly half the total, and for a large appliance only about a third. These amounts come from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and were checked on 18 August 2026; check them again before passing them on to a customer.
Two things that also belong here: the €200 label bonus applies at energy label A+++, and from the second air-to-water heat pump onwards, both the starting amount and the label bonus fall away, leaving only the €225 per kilowatt.
Which heat pumps fall outside the ISDE in 2026?
Split air-to-water heat pumps with a refrigerant charge under 3 kilograms and a refrigerant with a GWP above 750 no longer qualify from 2026. That follows from the European rules on fluorinated greenhouse gases. A customer sees none of this when comparing two quotes, which is exactly why it pays to state the refrigerant, the charge and the type explicitly per appliance in your quote.
Do I also get subsidy for a second heat pump in the same home?
Only the amount per kilowatt. From 2026, a second or further air-to-water heat pump in the same home no longer gets a starting amount or an energy label bonus. That mainly affects larger homes and situations where an appliance is installed per floor, and it is wise to go through that sum with the customer beforehand rather than afterwards.
When do you apply for the ISDE, and can I do that as an installer?
The application happens after installation, within the deadline RVO sets. The installation may not be carried out under your own management, and the appliance's reporting code should be on the invoice. An installer can handle the application with authorisation from the homeowner, but that is a separate service, not an automatic part of the installation. State clearly on your site and in your quote what you do and what the customer does themselves.
Has anything been added to the ISDE in 2026?
Yes, three things that make it easier or more generous. There is a one-off €400 for an energy-efficient ventilation system combined with an insulation measure. The maximum insulation value for glazing in listed buildings has been raised to 5.8 W/m2K, which brings secondary glazing into scope. And the paperwork has been reduced: the requirement for the Uf value of window frames has been dropped, and the proof for removing the gas meter has been simplified to a confirmation of the removal plan.
Should I, as an installation company, write about subsidy on my site?
It is one of the few topics in this trade that gets searched for all year round, including by people who are not ready for quotes yet. You do not have to promise an application service to answer that question. Explain how the scheme works, what the amounts are, when you apply and which appliances fall outside it, with a source and a date. Set a fixed reminder in January to review the page, because a page with outdated amounts does more harm than no page at all.
Remember this: the scheme drives the demand, you drive the answer
You have no influence over what happens to the ISDE, but you do have influence over whether you are the one who explains it. Six changes, a scale of starting amount plus capacity, and a gate that trips up some of the appliances: that is enough for a page that pulls in traffic all year round, and one you use at the table to sell certainty instead of price.
Put the reporting code on the invoice, put the refrigerant in the quote, and put the date you checked it under your amounts. Want the advertising side too? Take a look at the hub for heat pump and air conditioning installers NL. Want to know how demand shifts through the year? Read the annual calendar NL. And if you get stuck, booking a call NL is the shortest route.