This story was updated Aug. 13 with additional information on heat pump prices.

As Ottawa sweats through an unusually humid summer, a renter advocacy group is mobilizing to secure air conditioning units for its members through an undersubscribed city program—but has been concerned that more efficient heat pumps are priced out of reach for now.

In July, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)-Ottawa and allies won $100,000 in municipal budget for a pilot program that will provide 200 AC units to low-income tenants, the group wrote in a Facebook post. The units are available for low-income earners who are seniors, or have a medical condition that would be helped by cooling.

“We know this is just a drop in the bucket!” ACORN said at the time, adding that it would be demanding a province-wide air conditioning program next.

But as ACORN helps address an urgent health and safety issue this summer by connecting eligible residents with the AC program, better, more efficient technologies remain out of reach.

“Heat pumps in the long term are probably a better solution,” community leader Sharon Katz told The Energy Mix. But right now, “the alternative is either nothing or fans.”

Heat pumps both heat and cool a living space, but they’re significantly more expensive to install—$8,000 to $16,000, depending on the size of the home, compared to AC units that range between $140 and $720 at major retailers. That keeps them out of reach for many low-income households.

Even newer portable heat pumps that function a lot like portable ACs cost between $3,000 and $4,000.

Update: A reader writes that heat pumps cost $8,000 to $16,000 when they’re central units, connected to the ducting system to heat and cool an entire home, but that’s the wrong parallel to a window air conditioner for a single room. Ductless mini split heat pumps are priced in the same range as the air conditioners quoted in the original version of this story, with one large retailer charging $628 for a 12000-btu unit.

In a recent survey of 737 ACORN members, 44% of tenants said they didn’t have access to AC. Among those, 46% cited cost as the main reason.

“There’s obviously an advantage to bringing to the attention of city staff and politicians that heat pumps would be a better deal in the long run,” said Katz. “But for now, it’s a matter of taking what we can get and asking for the city to do a lot more, because 200 AC units just isn’t enough.”

In early August, ACORN discovered that only eight units had been given out. A spokesperson suggested the city is not promoting the pilot out of worry there would be too many applications and not enough ACs.

Instead, they were relying on community referrals to the program. ACORN applied to be a community partner and has identified 80 members who would qualify.

“When it comes to winter and the heat…we understand that landlords should have a minimum heat level for their tenants, otherwise they will freeze to death,” said ACORN member Dorothy Atakora-Gyan. “We need that mentality when it comes to the summer heat.”

Atakora-Gyan and her two cats have been living without AC in their Ottawa apartment throughout the hot and humid summer.

“[I can go] to a cooling centre during the day, but you have to live a life, you can’t sit there the whole day,” she said.

ACORN recently celebrated the city of New Westminster passing Canada’s first maximum heat bylaw, which requires landlords keep at least one room in every rental unit below 26°C between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

“Hospital visits and emergency responses cost far, far more than prevention,” said Atakora-Gyan. “We’re not asking Ottawa to create a whole new system. We can look to Toronto, Hamilton, and British Columbia cities that are already having this conversation.”