Guide · Incentives & money
The Money Available for Electrifying Your Home, and How Much of It Has Already Gone
Three federal tax credits paid for home electrification. Two ended on 31 December 2025 and the third on 30 June 2026. One federal programme is still running, administered by your state rather than by the IRS.
Written by HyreElectrical Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The short answer
Start here
Every federal home-electrification incentive, and whether you can still use it
The whole federal picture on 6 September 2026. Termination dates are the ones the IRS states in its fact sheet on the Public Law 119-21 modifications; rebate dates are from the appropriating statute. Nothing here is a prediction — every row is a date that has passed or a fund already appropriated.
| Incentive | What it paid | Last date to qualify | Can you use it for work starting now? |
|---|---|---|---|
| § 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit | 30% of qualifying costs, capped at $1,200 a year ($2,000 for heat pumps and heat-pump water heaters). Panelboards, sub-panelboards, branch circuits and feeders: up to $600 per item, supporting qualifying energy property only. | Property placed in service on or before 31 December 2025 | No. No new work qualifies. A 2025 installation is still claimed on a 2025 return. |
| § 25D Residential Clean Energy Credit | 30% of solar, wind, geothermal, fuel-cell and battery-storage costs, with no annual or lifetime cap. | Expenditures made on or before 31 December 2025 — an expenditure is made when installation is completed | No. No. Paying in 2025 for an installation finished in 2026 does not qualify. |
| § 30C Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (home EV charger) | 30% of the cost of the charging property at a main home, up to $1,000 per charging port, and only in a qualifying low-income or non-urban census tract. | Property placed in service on or before 30 June 2026 | No. No new work qualifies. One placed in service by 30 June 2026 is claimed on a 2026 return. |
| IRA § 50122 Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR), administered by your state | Up to $14,000 per household, including $4,000 toward an electric load service center and $2,500 toward electric wiring. | Funds remain available through 30 September 2031 | Only if your state or Tribe has opened its programme, and only within its rules. |
| IRA § 50121 Home Efficiency Rebates (HOMES), administered by your state | A rebate tied to modelled or measured whole-home energy savings, not to a named appliance. | Funds remain available through 30 September 2031 | Only if your state has opened its programme. One address cannot take HOMES and HEAR for the same measure. |
Source facts. § 25C, § 25D and § 30C termination dates: IRS, “FAQs for modification of sections 25C, 25D, 25E, 30C, 30D, 45L, 45W, and 179D under Public Law 119-21”. Rebate caps and fund availability: 42 U.S.C. § 18795a. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
Why so much of what you will read about this is wrong
The credits were legislated to run to 2032 and 2034, and almost every guide written in that window said so. Many have never been revised.
The federal government’s own consumer-facing material is part of the problem. On 6 September 2026, the Department of Energy’s Home Upgrades page — reached from energy.gov/save — still told readers to claim these improvements by submitting IRS Form 5695, with no indication that the underlying credits had been terminated. A HyreElectrical observation of a live public page, dated — agency sites lag statute, and DOE does not administer these credits. But “I read it on a .gov page” is not by itself a safe basis for signing a contract.
The safe basis is narrow: the IRS page for the specific credit, and the IRS fact sheet on the Public Law 119-21 changes, both in the sources below. Both carry a “Page Last Reviewed or Updated” stamp — for the § 30C page that read 26 May 2026 on the retrieval date, which is what makes its June 2026 cut-off trustworthy rather than merely plausible.
How the money disappeared, in five dates
The credits were not left to expire. They were terminated early, by statute, roughly six months before the first cut-off took effect — which is why so many households were mid-project when the rules moved.
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16 August 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act creates both halves of the systemIt expands the § 25C and § 25D tax credits and, separately, appropriates funds under §§ 50121 and 50122 for state-run rebates. These are two different mechanisms. A credit is claimed from the IRS on a return; a rebate is paid by a state programme, often at the point of sale. Confusing the two is the single most common mistake on this topic, and it matters more now than it ever did, because one mechanism is gone and the other is not.
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4 July 2025
Public Law 119-21 is enactedIt terminates § 25C for property placed in service after 31 December 2025 and § 25D for expenditures made after that date — pulling them forward from 2032 and 2034 respectively. It also moves § 30C to 30 June 2026. It does not touch the §§ 50121 and 50122 rebate appropriations.
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31 December 2025
The 25C and 25D cut-offFor § 25C the test is when the property was placed in service. For § 25D the test is when the installation was completed — the IRS states explicitly that paying on or before 31 December 2025 for a system finished afterwards does not qualify. A deposit is not a qualifying event under either.
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30 June 2026
The home EV-charger credit closesA charger placed in service on or before this date, at a main home in a qualifying low-income or non-urban census tract, can still be claimed on a 2026 return. One placed in service on 1 July 2026 cannot.
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Today
The rebates are the federal layer that is leftIRA rebate funds remain available through 30 September 2031. They reach a household only through a state energy office or Tribe that has stood a programme up, which is why the answer to "what can I get" is now a state question rather than a federal one.
The three words that decided who kept their credit
Announced and claimable are not the same thing, and the gap between them is almost always the phrase placed in service. If you have an unfinished project or an unfiled return, this is the part to read carefully.
A payment is not a qualifying event
The IRS states that the § 25C credit must be claimed for the tax year the property is installed, not merely purchased. For § 25D an expenditure is treated as made when the original installation is completed — the IRS answered this directly, “No”: paying in 2025 for a system installed in 2026 does not preserve the credit.
A 2025 job may still have a live claim
Qualifying property placed in service on or before 31 December 2025 belongs on a 2025 return, filed during 2026. This is where the largest amount of unclaimed electrification money sits. Ask whoever prepares your return before the extended 2025 filing window closes.
A rebate you took reduces what the credit could have covered
IRS Announcement 2024-19 holds that a DOE Home Energy Rebate paid to or for a purchaser is a purchase price adjustment, not income — not taxable, no Form 1099. The half people miss: it reduces your cost basis. The IRS example — spend $600, receive a $500 rebate, basis $100, whether the rebate arrived at the till or a year later. Stacking a rebate on a credit was never stacking on the full amount.
The programme that is still running
What HEAR pays, measure by measure — and why the panel line is the important one
The Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates programme is IRA § 50122, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 18795a. Not a tax credit, not claimed from the IRS, and not dependent on your owing tax. The figures below are the statutory caps — the ceiling a state may pay, not a promise of what any state pays.
| Eligible measure | Statutory cap | Category in the statute | Condition attached |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric heat pump for space heating and cooling | $8,000 | Appliance | Replacing a non-electric appliance, new construction, or a first-time purchase |
| Electric load service center (the panel) | $4,000 | Building material | Listed in its own right, not only as a supporting cost |
| Electric wiring | $2,500 | Building material | Listed in its own right, not only as a supporting cost |
| Electric heat pump water heater | $1,750 | Appliance | Replacing a non-electric appliance, new construction, or a first-time purchase |
| Insulation, air sealing and ventilation | $1,600 | Building material | Grouped as a single cap |
| Electric stove, cooktop, range or oven | $840 | Appliance | Includes a first-time purchase of an all-electric unit for the dwelling |
| Electric heat pump clothes dryer | $840 | Appliance | Replacing a non-electric appliance, new construction, or a first-time purchase |
Read the caps against the ceiling. The seven caps sum to $19,530 (HyreElectrical calculation from the statutory line items), but a household may receive no more than $14,000 in total. So a heat pump and a panel upgrade together — $12,000 — consume most of an entitlement before anything else is added. Source: 42 U.S.C. § 18795a; DOE, Home Energy Rebates Program Requirements. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
Does a panel upgrade on its own qualify, or must it come with an appliance?
The honest answer has two layers that are usually collapsed into one.
Under the old tax credit: only as a supporting cost
The IRS wrote that the costs of electrical components “needed to support residential energy property, including panelboards, sub-panelboards, branch circuits, and feeders” qualified — but only if they met the National Electrical Code and had a capacity of 200 amps or more, and only at $600 per item. A panel replaced for its own sake never qualified under § 25C, and that credit is now closed.
Under HEAR: the panel is listed in its own right
The statute defines a qualified electrification project as one including the purchase and installation of any of eight things, and an electric load service center is one of the eight, alongside electric wiring and insulation. The “replace a non-electric appliance, new construction, or first-time purchase” test in the next clause is framed “with respect to any appliance”, and DOE’s programme requirements list the load service center and electric wiring under qualified building materials.
HYRE analysis, rather than a quotation: on the face of the federal text, a panel or a rewire is a qualifying measure without a heat pump attached — a materially better position than the tax credit ever offered for panel work.
But the federal text is a ceiling, not your programme
States design and run these programmes, setting their own eligible-measure lists, rebate levels beneath the statutory caps and contractor rules — DOE requires a load service center and electric wiring to be installed by a contractor on the state’s qualified contractor list. A state can be narrower than the statute. None can be broader. “The federal rules allow a standalone panel rebate” and “my state pays one” are two different sentences.
Who HEAR is for
HEAR is income-tested at household level, and the tiers are statutory rather than left to each state. Area median income is the median where you live, so the same salary can be under the threshold in one metro and over it in another.
- Below 80% of area median income
- The programme may cover 100 per cent of the cost of the qualified electrification project, up to the measure caps and the $14,000 household maximum.
- 80% to 150% of area median income
- The programme may cover 50 per cent of the cost, under the same caps.
- Above 150% of area median income
- Not a low- or moderate-income household as the statute defines it, so not eligible for HEAR. State and utility programmes outside the IRA may still apply — for many such households, now the only route.
- Renters and multifamily
- The statute reaches owners and occupants, and separately makes an owner of a multifamily building eligible where at least half the residents are low- or moderate-income households. A tenant cannot authorise panel work without the owner regardless.
- Not both programmes for the same measure
- DOE requires states to block one address taking both a HOMES (§ 50121) and a HEAR (§ 50122) rebate for the same measure — with a narrow carve-out for load service centers and electric wiring against a measured-savings HOMES rebate.
Source facts: 42 U.S.C. § 18795a for the income tiers, the eligible-entity definitions and the $14,000 maximum; DOE Home Energy Rebates Program Requirements for the duplication rule and its carve-out. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
How to find out what you can actually get, in the right order
There is no single federal lookup. The order below puts the binding, checkable sources first and stops you committing to work before the money is confirmed.
- 1 Start with your state energy office, not with a search engine.
DOE distributes IRA rebate funds to state energy offices and Tribes and directs homeowners to contact theirs. That office’s own page is the only authority on whether a programme is open, what its measure list contains, and whether it is taking applications.
- 2 Search DSIRE for your state, filtered to the technology.
DSIRE — the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, established 1995, operated by the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center at N.C. State University — is a register, not a government service. Confirm terms on the administering body’s own page.
- 3 Check your own electric utility separately.
Utility programmes are not federal and appear on no DOE page. The source is your utility’s own efficiency page and the tariff behind it, not a contractor’s summary.
- 4 Confirm the panel specifically, in writing, before you sign anything.
Is a panel upgrade an eligible measure on its own, or only alongside an appliance; is there a contractor list the installer must already be on; and is the money paid at the point of sale or reimbursed afterwards — the last decides whether you need the cash up front. A verbal “it qualifies” is not a programme document.
- 5 Get the permit and the licensed electrician regardless.
A panel or service upgrade is permitted, inspected work by a licensed electrician, usually coordinated with the utility. No rebate is worth an unpermitted installation. Do not open a panel to inventory it for an application; the bus bars behind the dead front stay live with the main breaker off. Read the label on the door and stop there.
What we could not verify, stated plainly
We cannot tell you how many states have an open programme today, and we are not going to estimate. On 6 September 2026, DOE’s Home Energy Rebates page said only that rebates are "now available in select states" and that "additional details on active state, territory or Tribal rebate programs are coming soon". It published no roster. Counts circulating in trade coverage may well be right, but a count we cannot open the primary document for is a count we will not print.
We have not audited any individual state’s measure list. The finding that federal text treats a load service center as a qualifying measure in its own right is a reading of the statute and DOE’s programme requirements — not a statement that your state pays a standalone panel rebate. Step 4 exists because that gap is real.
This is not tax advice and we are not your tax preparer. The dates here are the statutory ones as the IRS states them. Whether an unfiled or amendable 2025 return can still carry a § 25C claim, and on what timetable, is a question for a preparer looking at your actual return.
What all of this means if the job in front of you is a panel
Panels get replaced because the existing one is discontinued or unserviceable, because there is no space for the circuits a household now needs, because an insurer flagged it, or because the service will not carry what is about to be plugged in. Those reasons did not change on 31 December 2025.
What changed is the margin. A household above 150 per cent of area median income counting on $600 from § 25C toward a panelboard has lost it, with no federal replacement. A household below 80 per cent, in a state with an open HEAR programme that lists the load service center, is in a better position than the tax credit ever put it — up to $4,000 against a measure the credit only covered as a $600 accessory.
The recommendation is a scheduling one. If you are income-eligible, find out whether your state programme is open before you book the work: a point-of-sale rebate cannot usually be applied to an invoice already settled. If you are not, price the job on its own merits rather than waiting for the federal layer to come back.
Questions
Is the 25C tax credit still available in 2026?
Can I still get a federal tax credit for an electrical panel upgrade?
Does a panel upgrade qualify for HEAR on its own, without a heat pump?
Can I still claim the federal home EV charger credit?
Written and audited by
HyreElectrical Research Desk
Primary-source research and fact checking
We read the model code, the federal safety notice, the municipal fee sheet or the utility tariff ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it. Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. HyreElectrical does not perform, supervise or warrant electrical work. Authorship is organisational: this desk, not a named persona.
- 10
- long-form launch pages in this layout
- 5
- states with verified licence records
- 16,369
- electrical companies in those records
- 74%
- of the store is Florida — disclosed first, not footnoted
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. Code statements come from NFPA 70 as the model code. Safety statements come from CPSC. Permit fees come from the city or county fee sheet. Utility charges come from the filed tariff. We do not cite a blog that cites a source; we open the source.
- Our contractor store is five states, and 74% of it is Florida. Any figure built on that store is titled to those states and names the concentration in the first screen. It is not a national sample of electricians.
- Load calculations on this site are a published simplification in the shape of NEC 220.82 — first 10 kVA at 100%, remainder at 40%, HVAC at 100%, EVSE at 125%. They are labelled as not a stamped calculation. A licensed electrician using the adopted edition does that work.
- No national price for a panel upgrade is shipped. Labour rates, the adopted code edition, whether the utility is involved, and the state of the existing wiring move the invoice too far for a roundup to help. Cost intent lives on the cost page; this page explains the decision.
- We do not perform electrical work, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favourable mention. Nobody buys a position on this site.
Data as of 6 September 2026. Authorship on this site is organisational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Sources & retrieval dates
- Internal Revenue Service — “FAQs for modification of sections 25C, 25D, 25E, 30C, 30D, 45L, 45W, AND 179D under Public Law 119-21, 139 Stat. 72 (July 4, 2025), commonly known as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB)” , The termination table used for every statutory date on this page: § 25C not allowed for property placed in service after 31 December 2025; § 25D not allowed for expenditures made after 31 December 2025; § 30C not allowed for property placed in service after 30 June 2026. Also the answer that paying before the cut-off does not preserve § 25D where installation completes afterwards, and that 25C qualified-manufacturer periodic reporting has ceased because of the accelerated termination. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service — Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (§ 25C) , The panelboard rule quoted on this page: costs of electrical components needed to support residential energy property, including panelboards, sub-panelboards, branch circuits and feeders, qualify if they meet the National Electric Code and have a capacity of 200 amps or more, limited to $600 per item. Also the instruction to claim the credit for the tax year the property is installed, not merely purchased. Page last reviewed or updated 28 April 2026. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service — Residential Clean Energy Credit (§ 25D) , “The credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025.” Page last reviewed or updated 4 July 2026. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service — Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (§ 30C) , The home EV-charger terms used here: property bought and placed in service at a main home from 1 January 2023 to 30 June 2026, 30 per cent of cost up to $1,000 per charging port, subject to the low-income or non-urban census tract condition. Page last reviewed or updated 26 May 2026. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service — Announcement 2024-19, “Federal Tax Treatment of Amounts Paid toward the Purchase of Energy Efficient Property and Improvements under Department of Energy Home Energy Rebate Programs Pursuant to Sections 50121 and 50122 of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” , A rebate paid to or on behalf of a purchaser is treated as a purchase price adjustment and is not includible in gross income under § 61; the rebate is excluded from cost basis under § 1012 when given at the time of sale, or adjusts basis under § 1016 when given later; the $600/$500/$100 worked example; and no § 6041 information reporting is required for rebates paid to purchasers. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- 42 U.S.C. § 18795a — High-efficiency electric home rebate program (IRA § 50122) , Every HEAR figure on this page: the eight items that make a qualified electrification project; the caps of $8,000, $4,000, $2,500, $1,750, $1,600, $840 and $840; the $14,000 household maximum; the 100 per cent and 50 per cent cost coverage at below 80 per cent and 80–150 per cent of area median income; the low- or moderate-income household and multifamily eligibility definitions; and funds remaining available through 30 September 2031. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- US Department of Energy, Office of State and Community Energy Programs — “Home Energy Rebates Program Requirements & Application Instructions” , The qualified electrification project definition as DOE restates it, with the load service center and electric wiring listed under qualified building materials rather than appliances; the requirement that a load service center and electric wiring be installed by a contractor on the state’s qualified contractor list; and the rule barring a single address from taking both a § 50121 and a § 50122 rebate for the same measure, with the carve-out for load service centers and electric wiring against a measured-savings rebate. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- US Department of Energy — Home Energy Rebates , The programme status language relied on for the limitation stated above the fold: “Home Energy Rebates are now available in select states. Additional details on active state, territory or Tribal rebate programs are coming soon.” No state roster was published on the page on the retrieval date, and readers are directed to their state or territory energy office. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- US Department of Energy — Home Upgrades (energy.gov/save) , The consumer-facing page recorded in this guide as still directing homeowners to submit IRS Form 5695 for home energy improvements on the retrieval date, with no notice that §§ 25C and 25D had been terminated. Cited as an observation of a live public page, dated. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
- DSIRE — Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency , Described on this page as it describes itself: established in 1995, operated by the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center at N.C. State University, covering state, territory, District of Columbia, federal and utility incentives. A register and finding aid, not a government programme administrator. Retrieved 6 September 2026.
Work out what the job needs before you work out who pays for it
An incentive changes the invoice; it does not change whether your service can carry the load. Size the job first, confirm your state programme second, and book a licensed electrician who will pull the permit either way.
HyreElectrical does not perform, supervise or warrant electrical work, and takes no payment for placement or ranking. This is a summary of published federal law and programme documents on the date shown — not tax advice, not legal advice, not advice on a specific property. Tax positions turn on facts we cannot see; take them to a preparer. Programmes change without notice, and a state programme can be narrower than the federal ceiling described here. We have no commercial relationship with any programme administrator, utility or manufacturer named above.