Is the $8,000 Heat Pump Rebate (HEAR) Available in Your State? 50-State Status Map

Why so few states are open

HEAR was funded in 2022 with $4.5 billion, allocated to every state by population. But the money only reaches homeowners after a state designs a program, gets it approved by the U.S. Department of Energy, registers contractors, and builds an income-verification process. Roughly a dozen states got there in 2024–2025. The rest were still in the approval queue when DOE issued new program rules on May 29 and June 1, 2026, which sent several of them back to revise their applications — Oregon, Pennsylvania and Virginia all say so on their own program pages. Idaho's legislature voted to reject the funding outright.

The states that did launch are running into the other end of the problem: the allocations are finite. California reserved its entire single-family budget by February 2026 and went waitlist-only. Colorado closed both of its regions by August 2026. Georgia closed on August 14, 2026. So the map has 9 states where you can realistically apply today, and even in those the fine print matters.

The May 2026 rule change: no more gas-to-heat-pump conversions

This is the change most homeowners have not heard about. DOE guidance issued May 29, 2026 bars HEAR funds from being used to replace gas, oil or propane heating with electric equipment. States applied it differently: Arizona, North Carolina and Wisconsin stopped accepting fuel-switching projects on September 1, 2026 (electric-to-electric replacements still qualify); Georgia stopped fuel-switching on August 10 and then closed the program entirely four days later. If your home heats with gas and your state is marked “open with limits,” assume the heat pump rebate does not apply to you until the state says otherwise.

What HEAR pays, where it is open

The federal caps are the same everywhere: up to $8,000 toward an ENERGY STAR heat pump for space heating and cooling, up to $1,750 for a heat pump water heater, up to $4,000 for a panel upgrade, up to $2,500 for wiring, and up to $1,600 for insulation and air sealing, inside a $14,000 lifetime cap per household. Households at or below 80% of area median income get up to 100% of project cost within those caps; 80–150% AMI gets up to 50%. Above 150% AMI you are not eligible for HEAR at all. It is a point-of-sale rebate processed by a state-registered contractor, not a tax credit, so it does not depend on your tax bill and shows up as a line-item discount on the invoice.

A few states route the same dollars through an existing program instead of a standalone rebate. New York puts HEAR money into NYSERDA's EmPower+ program, where it currently funds air sealing and insulation rather than an $8,000 heat pump line. Massachusetts is folding it into Mass Save's income-eligible pathway and has not opened a separate portal. Maine only offers it through a mobile-home initiative. In those states the number on the federal fact sheet is not the number you will see on a quote.

How to claim it (in an open state)

Confirm your income tier first. Look up the 80% and 150% AMI thresholds for your county and household size on HUD's income-limits tool. Your contractor will need a recent tax return or paystubs; states differ on whether they count gross or adjusted income, so ask before you schedule work if you are near a threshold.

Use a registered contractor. Every active state requires the installer to be enrolled in its HEAR program, and you cannot self-claim later with an unenrolled contractor. “Are you registered with the state HEAR program?” is the first question to ask when collecting quotes.

Verify the equipment. The unit must be ENERGY STAR certified (cold-climate certified in colder zones). Get the AHRI certificate for the exact indoor/outdoor pairing before signing; budget equipment often does not qualify, and swapping to a qualifying model after the fact is expensive.

Reserve before work starts. In every state that has closed or waitlisted, the cutoff was about whether a reservation was submitted, not whether the install was finished. Do not let a contractor start until the state has confirmed your reservation, and do not assume a retroactive claim will be honored — Washington, for one, says explicitly that rebates are not retroactive.

If your state is grey (or red)

The useful thing about a state-by-state view is that it shows how little HEAR matters in practice for most homeowners. The programs that actually pay in 2026 are state and utility rebates with no income test: Mass Save in Massachusetts, Efficiency Maine, NYSERDA and the New York utilities, Xcel in Colorado, Energize CT, Rhode Island Energy's per-ton rebate, and hundreds of utility programs elsewhere. Many of them pay $1,500–$10,000 on their own and none of them are affected by the DOE fuel-switching rule. Every state page in our rebate index lists them with amounts, status and a link to the program page, and the calculator stacks them for your system type.

If you are income-qualified in a state that has not launched, the honest advice from several state energy offices is the same as ours: do not delay a failing furnace or a necessary replacement waiting for HEAR. Vermont's Public Service Department says it plainly — plan as if the funds are not coming.

Frequently asked questions