Texas Heat Pump Rebates

What's available in Texas

Texas has no statewide rebate program but utility-administered programs cover most metros. Program availability varies by ZIP code.

HEEHRA in Texas

HEEHRA rebate: Point-of-sale rebate up to $8,000 for households at or below 80% of area median income. Funded by the IRA, administered by each state. Texas HEEHRA is closed as of 2026-09-07 — funding fully exhausted.

How heat pump rebates work in Texas

Texas has no statewide heat pump rebate program. There is no Texas equivalent to California's TECH Clean California or New York's NYS Clean Heat — the state legislature has not appropriated funds for residential heat pump incentives, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas does not require energy-efficiency programs at the same scale that other state regulators do. What Texas does have is a patchwork of investor-owned utility rebates, municipal utility rebates, and electric cooperative rebates, each tied to a specific service territory. Whether you can claim a meaningful rebate in 2026 depends almost entirely on which utility delivers your power.

The largest Texas rebates come from the major investor-owned distribution utilities (Oncor in North and West Texas, CenterPoint in the Houston area, AEP Texas in South and West Texas) and from municipal utilities like Austin Energy and CPS Energy in San Antonio. Within ERCOT (the Texas grid that covers most of the state), residential customers shop for retail electricity providers but the distribution utility owns the wires and runs the rebate programs — so your rebate is determined by who owns your meter, not who sends your bill. Outside ERCOT, El Paso Electric and SWEPCO operate vertically integrated rebate programs.

Texas's IRA HEEHRA / HEAR allocation is administered by the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) inside the Texas Comptroller's office, with APTIM Federal Services as the implementation partner. As of September 2026 the program has not launched: SECO says it is still in the design and approval phase, no launch date has been set pending US DOE approval, and no applications or receipts can be processed. Advocates expect an early-2027 opening. Texas income-qualified households (≤80% AMI) will eventually be eligible for up to $8,000 toward a heat pump install, but those rebates are not claimable today. The Texas stack in 2026 is utility rebates only, with HEEHRA on hold.

Texas rebate programs

5 utility-specific programs not shown here. Enter your ZIP in the calculator to filter to just your utility.

A worked example: replacing a Houston AC + furnace combo

Marcus owns a 2,200 sq ft house in west Houston, served by CenterPoint Energy on the wires side. His 18-year-old natural gas furnace and central AC both still work but are past their efficient life. His CenterPoint bills run $310/month in summer. He gets quotes for a 4-ton ducted air-source heat pump rated 16.5 SEER2 / 8.6 HSPF2, with a backup electric resistance heat strip in the air handler (no gas furnace retained). Installed quotes range $13,200 to $15,800; he picks a CenterPoint-participating contractor at $14,400.

CenterPoint's residential HVAC program pays a participating contractor an incentive scaled by tonnage and SEER, which shows up as a credit on the install invoice. CenterPoint does not publish the dollar table; for a 4-ton 16.5 SEER2 install, expect a few hundred dollars (third-party guides cite up to $500 per unit) and ask the contractor for the exact figure. The contractor handles the paperwork and Marcus sees the rebate as a CenterPoint check 6-8 weeks after install, not as an upfront discount. There is no statewide Texas rebate to layer on top — TECH-equivalent doesn't exist in Texas. The federal §25C residential heat pump credit is gone for 2026, so Marcus's net rebate stack is $800.

Marcus's neighbor Jennifer in Spring is on Entergy Texas instead of CenterPoint (different distribution utility). Same install, but Entergy's residential rebate is structured differently — flat $300 for a qualifying heat pump, with a separate $100 thermostat rebate. So Jennifer's stack is $400 vs Marcus's $800 for the identical equipment, simply because she's three miles further north and on a different distribution utility.

If Marcus's household income were below 80% of Houston's AMI (roughly $80,000 for a family of four in 2026), he'd be eligible for the Texas HEEHRA program once it launches — adding up to $8,000 to his stack. As of May 2026 that program isn't accepting applications. The honest 2026 message for non-income-qualified Texas homeowners is: your utility rebate is your incentive. Plan accordingly.

Choosing a contractor in Texas

Texas does not have statewide HVAC contractor licensing in the way California or Massachusetts do. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation issues an Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractor license — verify your contractor holds a current Class A or Class B license at tdlr.texas.gov before signing. The license number must appear on contracts and invoices by state law.

Most Texas utility rebates require the contractor to be enrolled in the utility's program (Oncor's Take A Load Off, Texas home energy efficiency program, CenterPoint's residential HVAC program, Austin Energy's participating contractor list, AEP Texas's program). A contractor who is not enrolled cannot file the rebate after the fact. This is the most common reason Texas homeowners think they 'qualified' for a rebate but never received it — the install was technically eligible but the contractor wasn't in the program.

Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin all have humid summer conditions that push heat pumps differently from drier climates. A right-sized system matters more in Texas than in milder states because oversizing causes short-cycling, which kills humidity removal in the cooling season. Ask your contractor for a written Manual J load calculation specific to your house — not a rule-of-thumb sizing based on square footage. A 4-ton system in a properly insulated 2,200 sq ft Houston home is a defensible answer; a 5-ton in the same house is almost always oversized.

Common pitfalls for Texas homeowners

• Counting on Texas HEEHRA in 2026. Texas HEEHRA / HEAR is in pre-launch as of May 2026. Several aggregator sites and contractor flyers cite the $8,000 maximum as currently available — it isn't. Until the State Energy Conservation Office opens the portal and confirms applications are being accepted, treat HEEHRA as future-state only.
• Confusing your retail provider with your utility. Inside ERCOT, you choose a retail electricity provider (TXU, Reliant, Gexa, Green Mountain, etc.) but you don't choose your distribution utility — that's set by your address. Your rebate eligibility depends on the distribution utility (Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, Texas-New Mexico Power), not your retail provider. Look at the 'TDU charges' or 'Delivery charges' line on your bill to identify the distribution utility.
• Missing the post-install paperwork window. Most Texas utility rebates require submission within 60-90 days of install. CenterPoint's SCORE is 90 days; Oncor's program is 60. After the deadline, the rebate is forfeit even if everything else qualifies. If your contractor is filing on your behalf, get written confirmation that the submission was completed within 30 days.
• Assuming gas furnace retention disqualifies the rebate. A 'dual-fuel' or 'hybrid' heat pump install (heat pump + retained gas furnace as backup) is eligible for most Texas utility rebates and often gets the same rebate amount as an all-electric install. Some contractors discourage dual-fuel because it's a more complex commission; in cold-snap regions like Dallas-Fort Worth, retaining the gas furnace can be the right engineering decision and doesn't cost you the rebate.
• Sizing for the worst day instead of the typical day. Texas summer cooling loads dominate sizing decisions, but a system sized for the design day at 100°F+ ambient is often oversized for the 90% of cooling hours that fall well below that. A variable-capacity heat pump handles this far better than single-stage equipment — it modulates down on mild days and runs longer cycles, which improves humidity removal. Pay the extra $1,500-2,500 for variable-capacity if your budget allows.

Estimate your net cost

How to claim each rebate

1. Get pre-approved (where required). Some utility programs require approval before install. Check program details before signing a contract.
2. Use a participating contractor. Many programs require a licensed installer from an approved contractor list — especially HEEHRA, which routes through CEC-approved contractors who process the rebate at point of sale.
3. Save documentation. AHRI certificate, model numbers, and itemized invoice are required for most utility rebates.
4. Submit utility rebate within 60–90 days of install. Some programs are first-come first-served and close mid-year — funding can run out before the calendar year does.

If you can't afford a replacement in Texas

Rebates lower the price, but they still assume you can pay the rest. If your heating system is unsafe or has failed and a new one is out of reach, these programs repair or replace equipment at low or no cost for income-qualified households. Heat Pump Pricing Index is an independent information site — we don't fund, discount, or install equipment — so these are the doors to knock on first:

• Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). Free energy and health-and-safety repairs — an unsafe furnace is exactly the kind of problem it fixes — for households at or near 200% of the poverty line. Apply through your local community action agency: how to apply (energy.gov).
• LIHEAP. Heating-bill help plus, in most states, a crisis component for broken or dangerous heating equipment. Same local agency; Texas LIHEAP contacts.
• USDA Section 504 Home Repair. For homeowners outside cities: 1% loans up to $40,000, and grants up to $10,000 for homeowners 62 and older to remove health and safety hazards. Program page and state offices (rd.usda.gov).
• Your utility and 211. Most electric and gas utilities run an income-qualified assistance fund — call the number on your bill and ask. Dialing 211 reaches a local specialist who knows which agencies in Texas currently have funds.

Safety first: if a technician has told you a heat exchanger is cracked, stop using the furnace and make sure you have a working carbon monoxide detector before anything else.

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