Home Energy Rebates 2026: How to Prepare for HOMES and HEEHR Before Programs Launch
Updated August 2026: This article has been revised to reflect DOE Program Notices 26-1, 26-2, and 26-3, including new HOMES and HEEHR program direction, greater flexibility for state program design, updated fuel-switching rules, and the growing importance of collecting the right home and project information before formal modeling, approval, and installation.
The Department of Energy (DOE)'s Home Energy Rebates are moving into a new phase, with updated program names, updated rules, and more responsibility placed on states, territories, and Tribes to launch programs that fit their local markets.
For homeowners, the practical message is simple: do not start with equipment. Start with the home and your state's process. Gather the information that already exists — an audit or Home Energy Score, utility history, photos, equipment details, blower-door results, and contractor observations — and identify what is still missing before making major project decisions.
Some programs require a formal home assessment or approved energy model; others may use a more limited or state-designed pathway. The goal is not to repeat information that is already available, but to assemble enough reliable information to develop the right project and complete whatever assessment, modeling, or verification the state requires.
First, the acronyms changed
DOE is now using names that align more closely with the statutory language in the Inflation Reduction Act:
HOMES
Home Owner Managing Energy Savings is the whole-home energy savings rebate program. It is generally tied to modeled or measured energy savings from a package of improvements.
HEEHR
High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebates remains the high-efficiency electric rebate program, but the current direction narrows the existing-home pathway. Rather than broadly funding fuel-switching from fossil-fuel equipment to electric equipment, the updated HEEHR approach focuses HVAC and appliance rebates on upgrading existing electric equipment to more efficient electric equipment. Related project categories such as insulation, air sealing, ventilation, electrical wiring, and load service center upgrades may still matter, depending on final state program rules.
What HOMES and HEEHR are supposed to do
The Home Energy Rebates Program includes HOMES and HEEHR. HOMES is aimed at whole-home projects that achieve qualifying energy savings. Projects may include envelope improvements, heating and cooling systems, water heating, duct improvements, and other state-approved measures that contribute to the qualifying savings package. Under the modeled pathway, the project must include qualifying major upgrades consistent with the program's requirements.
HEEHR is focused on efficient electric upgrades and related improvements. DOE’s public description identifies categories such as insulation, air sealing, ventilation, electric wiring and load service center upgrades, electric heating and cooling upgrades, and efficient electric appliances.
The important shift: These programs are not just about buying equipment. They are increasingly about the sequence of work, the condition of the home, and the information needed to support a sound project — all subject to the documentation and rules required by each state, territory, or Tribe.
What changed in the current HEEHR direction?
One of the biggest changes is that HEEHR is no longer best understood as a broad existing-home fuel-switching rebate. The current direction removes program allowances for using rebate dollars to replace existing non-electric appliances and instead focuses HVAC and appliance rebates on upgrading from existing electric equipment to more efficient electric equipment. HVAC and electric appliances in new construction continue to be allowable.
The HVAC pathway has an important nuance. DOE now allows an existing fossil-fuel HVAC system to remain when an eligible heat pump is installed, even if the heat pump will not become the home's primary heating and cooling source. But that does not restore the former broad fuel-switching pathway: for existing homes, the current HEEHR direction limits HVAC and appliance rebates to qualifying upgrades from existing electric equipment to more efficient electric equipment. For example, a qualifying project may retain an existing gas furnace or boiler while upgrading eligible electric HVAC equipment, subject to the state's approved program rules.
The current HEEHR direction also reinforces an envelope-first principle: homes may need to use rebates for insulation and air sealing before heating and cooling upgrades, unless the home is already insulated and sealed to a DOE-approved, state-specified level.
Other HEEHR changes include expanding eligible electric heat pump clothes dryers to include ENERGY STAR certified combination washer-dryers, allowing certain project categories to claim rebates incrementally, and allowing rebate funds to cover warranties, accessories, and appropriate state or local taxes.
Do not assume retroactive eligibility. If your state program has not launched, do not assume work completed before launch will qualify. Check current state rules before buying equipment, signing a contract, or counting on a rebate.
HOMES may still matter for heat pumps
One important distinction is that HEEHR and HOMES are not the same pathway. HEEHR is more measure-specific and more limited for existing-home fuel switching. HOMES is different because it is tied to whole-home energy savings.
That means a heat pump may still be part of a HOMES project if it contributes to a qualifying modeled or measured savings package and meets state program rules. HOMES does not ask only whether a single measure is electric. It asks whether the whole-home retrofit package produces enough energy savings under an approved pathway.
This is why the first step matters so much. Before choosing the rebate path, homeowners and contractors need to understand the home: the envelope, air leakage, insulation levels, mechanical systems, electrical readiness, moisture risks, and project sequence.
Did the income provisions disappear?
No. The better way to say it is this: certain Justice40, disadvantaged-community, and reserved-allocation requirements have changed, but that does not mean the underlying income-based rebate provisions disappeared.
HOMES still has higher rebate provisions for low-income households, and HEEHR remains tied to low- and moderate-income household eligibility rules. What appears to have changed is the allocation and program-design layer around those requirements, not the basic income-related structure of the rebates.
For homeowners, the safest assumption is that rebate eligibility may depend on income, location, project type, timing, contractor rules, and documentation. For contractors and program partners, that means the intake process matters.
Expect different workflows in different states. DOE has given states greater flexibility in how they implement the revised programs. One state may use a traditional auditor-led process, while another may rely more heavily on contractors, regional partners, existing assessments, remote review, or centralized modeling. Always follow the approved process where the home is located.
When can homeowners apply?
Homeowners can apply only after their state, territory, or Tribe has completed the necessary DOE and program launch steps and opened the rebate process to the public. The timing, eligible measures, application pathway, contractor requirements, and documentation rules can vary by location.
That makes state-specific information important. Green Home Club is working to include state-specific rebate information so homeowners and contractors can better understand what each program may offer. But program status should always be verified with the official state energy office, territory, Tribe, utility, or program administrator.
What can homeowners do now?
The best immediate step is preparation. Start by checking your official state, territory, or Tribal program and gathering whatever information about the home already exists. That may include a prior energy audit, Home Energy Score, weatherization assessment, utility records, equipment information, photographs, or previous contractor findings.
Before paying for a new audit solely to qualify for a rebate, check what assessment process your program requires and who is authorized to perform it. HOMES projects require a home assessment, but states establish the process and may make use of existing information as part of their approved workflow. Rebate readiness is increasingly about collecting the right information without unnecessarily starting over.
For households experiencing financial hardship, DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program may also be worth checking because it can provide weatherization services through state, territory, or Tribal programs.
Rebate readiness is not just about having an audit. It is about organizing the facts that make a project easier to understand, scope, price, model, and verify. That is especially important because home-assessment, data, modeling, and documentation requirements can differ from one state program to another.
Helpful rebate-readiness and planning documents may include:
- A recent home energy audit or Home Energy Score report, if available
- Blower-door results and air leakage notes, if available
- Photos of attic, basement, rim joists, crawlspace, windows, and mechanical equipment
- Equipment nameplates for heating, cooling, and water heating systems
- Electrical panel photos and service-size information
- Utility bills or usage history, where relevant
- Comfort complaints, moisture issues, ice dams, drafts, or rooms that are hard to heat or cool
- Contractor questions and any bids or scope notes already received
Where Home Energy Score and Green Home Predictor fit
Home Energy Score, existing energy audits, contractor observations, and Green Home Predictor can work together to fill a practical gap between what is known about a home and what is needed to develop a rebate-ready project.
A DOE Home Energy Score report can provide a useful standardized starting point because it captures important information about the home's structure, insulation, windows, mechanical systems, and envelope. Green Home Predictor can read a Home Energy Score PDF and organize supported information into a reviewable Home Snapshot.
But GHP does not require every project to begin with a new audit. Its broader role is to help homeowners, contractors, and coaches gather and organize available home information, identify what is still missing or uncertain, and develop a clearer, properly sequenced preliminary workscope before the project moves into formal savings modeling or program review.
For HOMES, the official assessment and required energy-savings calculation remain part of the state's approved process. Modeled projects generally use DOE-approved modeling consistent with BPI-2400, while current DOE guidance also provides limited flexibility for uncalibrated modeling and approved alternative approaches. Green Home Predictor does not replace those official calculations or determine rebate eligibility.
For HEEHR, the required process may be different. Some projects require limited pre-installation assessment and documentation, while states have flexibility in designing portions of their contractor, retail, documentation, and verification pathways. GHP can help organize the underlying home facts and project sequence before those formal program steps occur.
Green Home Predictor is best understood as the contractor-facing workflow layer between the home and the state's approved systems: reuse what already exists, gather what is missing, identify issues that require specialist verification, develop clearer next steps, and prepare better-organized project information for formal modeling and program submission.
GHP is not a rebate approval tool, energy-savings certification, contractor bid, or substitute for required diagnostics and professional judgment. State-specific imports, exports, data mappings, and reporting integrations can be configured and validated with sponsoring programs as part of a structured pilot.
Start with the home, not the rebate.
If you already have an audit or Home Energy Score, upload it into Green Home Predictor and review the Home Snapshot. If you do not have an audit yet, you can begin by organizing the home's basic facts and identifying what is still missing before deciding what additional assessment or contractor review your state program requires.
