Energy efficiency rebates in Texas.
Every federal, state, and utility incentive for heat pumps, insulation, air sealing, and weatherization in Texas — cross-referenced and kept current.
Tell us about your project. We'll match you with local pros and every rebate you qualify for.
State Energy Conservation Office
- Type
- State Agency
- IRA allocation
- $690M
Active rebate programs
6 programs currently accepting applications in Texas.
| Program | Amount | Eligibility | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Energy Home Energy Savings | Heat pump $1,000–$1,600 by tier; central AC $950–$1,450; HPWH $1,000; attic insulation to R38 (per sq ft); air infiltration + duct sealing $0.20/sq ft; AC tune-up $175 | Austin Energy customers (municipal, Austin only). Attic insulation = sq ft × $0.03 × R-value + $45 setup; duct replace $3.25/lin ft, duct insulate $1.00/lin ft. Amounts confirmed at administrator page 2026-07-11. | Active |
| Austin Energy — Velocity CU 0% Financing | 0% APR, loans $1,500–$25,000 | Austin Energy customers. 0% APR window 12/1/2025–9/30/2026, terms up to 120 months. | Active |
| CPS Energy STEP / SaveNow (San Antonio) | Heat pump $100–$275/ton by SEER2; attic insulation $0.25 self / $0.35 contractor per sq ft; cool roof $0.08–$0.20/sq ft | CPS Energy customers (municipal, San Antonio only). Figures are secondary-source, medium confidence — confirm with a live quote before relying on an amount. | Active |
| CenterPoint Energy Standard Offer Program (Houston) | Heat pump up to ~$500/unit; attic insulation 40% up to $750 all-electric / $450 gas-only; smart thermostat ~$75 | CenterPoint electric customers, delivered via Approved Service Providers. MEDIUM confidence — administrator efficiency page 404'd this sweep; amounts are secondary-source, confirm before relying. | Active |
| Oncor Take A Load Off Texas (TALOT) | Set by contractor/trade ally — no flat amount published | Oncor customers (Dallas-Fort Worth). Oncor's TALOT page lists HVAC (Home Energy Efficiency Program), insulation, and low-income weatherization but publishes NO flat dollar amounts. Any specific figure (e.g. ~$600/heat pump) is secondary-source only — get the amount from your contractor. | Active |
| TDHCA Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) | Full income-qualified weatherization (audit, air sealing, insulation, HVAC, ductwork) | Income-qualified households, all 254 counties (DOE + LIHEAP). Apply via your local subrecipient agency. Program confirmed ACTIVE; specific 2026 application-window dates could not be re-confirmed at source — treat dates as unverified. | Active |
Run the numbers for Texas.
Free, no account needed. Every figure is cited, so you have a benchmark before a Texas contractor quotes you one.
IRA implementation status
How Texas is implementing the Inflation Reduction Act home energy rebates.
Metro areas in Texas
Local utility programs and municipal incentives by metro area.
CenterPoint delivery, competitive retail
Oncor delivery, competitive retail
Austin Energy (municipal), strong efficiency programs
CPS Energy (municipal)
Rebates are step one
Once you know what Texas pays, here's the rest of the path: what order to do the work in, and what belongs on a fair quote.
What order to do it in
Envelope first, equipment second — how to sequence a retrofit to your budget and your rebates' deadlines.
How to read a quote
What belongs on a heat pump or insulation quote, and the red flags that mean keep shopping.
What attic insulation costs
Per-square-foot prices by material, and why this is the work rebate programs subsidize hardest.
Claim rebates after install
The document kit, the application walkthrough, and the mistakes that get claims rejected.
Rebates cover part of it. Here's the rest.
What Texas pays is the first rung. These cover the money questions underneath it: the 2026 federal rules, the state and utility loan programs worth checking before a bank, and the borrowing routes that come after.
How to pay for it
The whole money picture in order of cost: rebates first, then low-interest loans, then borrowing.
State energy loans
The state and utility loan programs we have verified at the administrator, with rates and conditions.
The 2026 rebate rules
What DOE Program Notices 26-1 and 26-2 changed about HEAR and HOMES, and which states are live.
Latest Texas energy news
Recent Texas rebate, policy, and efficiency coverage from our monitored sources.
Texas Prison A/C Mandate Puts Massive Retrofit Challenge in Focus
A federal judge has ordered the Texas prison system to install air conditioning in all its facilities by the end of 2029, ruling that housing inmates without cooling violates the Eighth Amendment. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice estimates the work could cost about $1.5 billion, making it one of the largest institutional cooling retrofits in state history. As of early September, 38 of the state's 104 prisons had full air conditioning and 53 had partial coverage, with tens of thousands of additional "cool beds" in various stages of construction, procurement, and design. This isn't a home story, but it shows what a large-scale cooling retrofit involves once you go beyond a typical house: aging buildings need upgraded electrical capacity, new ductwork or entirely new distribution systems, and careful checks for moisture and condensation once spaces that were never cooled suddenly are. Engineers quoted in the coverage note that every building's electrical and structural capacity has to be evaluated individually — old age alone doesn't tell you what's feasible. For a homeowner, the practical lesson is one of scale rather than direct impact: retrofitting for cooling, even in a single building, means sizing the system to the specific space, checking existing ducts and wiring rather than assuming they'll work, and planning for how moisture and humidity behave differently once cooling is added. The prison project is simply that same logic multiplied across 104 facilities and a fixed federal deadline.
Grid inertia is the new reliability
This is a story about how the power grid itself is changing, not something that requires action at home, but it helps explain why your electricity has gotten more reliable and, in Texas, cheaper. Large batteries connected to the grid have grown fast, especially in Texas, where the grid operator ERCOT now runs the biggest battery fleet in the country. These batteries respond to power disruptions in a fraction of a second, faster than traditional power plants, and have taken over the job of smoothing out frequency swings that used to cause instability. They have also pushed down prices by storing cheap solar and wind power and releasing it during the evening hours when electricity used to cost the most. The next challenge is keeping voltage steady as older coal and gas plants retire. Spinning turbines in those plants naturally resist sudden changes in the grid, a property called inertia. Newer batteries can mimic that effect using what's called a grid-forming inverter, software and hardware that lets a battery stabilize voltage on its own instead of just following the grid's lead. A blackout in Spain and Portugal in 2025, and a large data-center outage in Virginia, showed what can go wrong when voltage control is weak. In response, grid regulators and groups like NERC and ERCOT are now requiring new battery projects, and some existing ones, to add this grid-forming capability, with new rules taking effect in 2026. For homeowners, the upshot is a grid that's becoming more resistant to blackouts and price spikes as more battery storage comes online near you.
I’m more convinced than ever that DUCTED hvac is not the way
A homeowner building a small, well-insulated guest house in North Texas asked a building forum why he shouldn't skip central ducted heating and cooling and instead use four separate ductless mini-splits (small wall-mounted heat pump units), one per room. He argued that separate units give better control room by room, avoid duct energy losses, let you see and clean dust buildup more easily, and provide backup if one unit fails. Experts who replied pushed back on some points but agreed ductless has real advantages for small, tight homes. One noted that his calculated heating need seemed too high for a house this well sealed, and that bedrooms this size likely need far less capacity than the 9,000 BTU units he priced at around $500 each (larger 6,000 BTU ducted options start near $1,400). Both experts suggested a hybrid approach: one small ducted unit serving just the bedrooms, paired with a single wall-mounted unit for the main living area, rather than four separate outdoor units. They also cautioned that fresh-air ventilation systems (ERVs, which exchange stale indoor air for filtered outdoor air) don't fully solve dust and humidity control, and that clean, well-built ductwork isn't the dirt trap he feared — sloppy installation is usually the real culprit. For homeowners planning similar small, efficient additions or new builds, the exchange is a reminder that sizing equipment correctly, not just choosing ducted versus ductless, often determines comfort, humidity control and long-term efficiency.
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