2026 status check
Both federal credits expired at the end of 2025. Most articles on this topic have not been updated. Here is what is genuinely still available.
Three questions. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Congress terminated 25C for property placed in service after 31 December 2025, in Public Law 119-21 signed on 4 July 2025. Most articles still online were written before that and are wrong for a 2026 install.
Terminated on the same date and by the same law as 25C. It does not apply to a 2026 install. Note this only ever covered geothermal heat pumps, not ordinary air source ones.
Single family heat pump HVAC incentives are fully reserved and the last day to create a reservation was 14 November 2025. If your contractor told you they would handle a TECH reservation for a 2026 job, ask them to confirm it in writing before you sign.
HEEHRA is means tested and the deepest rebates go to households at or below 80 percent of area median income. It is also fully reserved for single family projects as of 24 February 2026. A Phase II is expected from the California Energy Commission, with timing and funding not yet confirmed.
Utility programmes are the pathway most likely to still be open in 2026, and they stack with anything else you qualify for. We deliberately do not print an amount here, because the figures quoted around the web for these programmes contradict each other and none of them is the utility's own page. Check the utility directly, and note that most require ENERGY STAR equipment, a licensed C-20 contractor, and a finalised permit.
This is a summary of programme status, not tax advice. Confirm your own position with whoever prepares your return.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21, was signed on 4 July 2025. Among many other things it set an end date on the two residential energy tax credits created under the Inflation Reduction Act. Both 25C and 25D terminated for property placed in service after 31 December 2025.
Until then, 25C was worth up to $2,000 on a qualifying heat pump, and 25D covered geothermal systems, solar and battery storage at 30 percent of installed cost with no cap at all. Between them they were the backbone of most electrification quotes, and a very large amount of content was written about them between 2023 and 2025.
That content is still ranking. Much of it still says these credits are available, because nobody went back to update it after the law changed. If you are reading an article about the heat pump tax credit and it does not mention an expiry, check its date before you rely on it, and check the date the article was last updated rather than published.
This is the detail that decides borderline cases, and it is worth being precise about. The credits turn on the date the equipment was placed in service, meaning installed and ready for use. It is not the date you signed the contract, not the date you paid the deposit, and not the date the equipment was delivered.
So a system contracted in November 2025 but commissioned in January 2026 does not qualify. A system finished on 30 December 2025 does, and is claimed on the 2025 return you file in 2026.
If you are in that window, one practical note on 25D specifically: it was never capped, and unused credit carries forward. If the credit exceeded your 2025 tax liability, the remainder is not lost, and it is worth making sure whoever prepares your return knows to carry it.
California ran the two most generous state level pathways in the country, and both are closed to new single family reservations.
TECH Clean California single family heat pump HVAC incentives are fully reserved. The last day to create a reservation was 14 November 2025.
HEEHRA, the state's federally funded electrification rebate, was fully reserved for single family projects statewide as of 24 February 2026. New income verification applications are closed, and requests in Northern California that had not been approved were placed on a waitlist. Anything submitted after that date goes onto the waitlist too. A Phase II has been anticipated from the California Energy Commission, but the timing and the funding level have not been confirmed, so it is not something to plan a purchase around.
There is a practical warning in here. If a contractor is still quoting you a 2026 job with a TECH or HEEHRA rebate deducted from the price, ask them to confirm the reservation in writing before you sign anything. A reservation that does not exist becomes your bill, not theirs.
Utility rebates are the pathway most likely to still be open, and they stack with whatever else you qualify for. We are deliberately not printing a dollar figure for them, and the reason is worth being open about.
In July 2026, four separate sites quoted the same PG&E residential heat pump programme at four different amounts, ranging from a few hundred dollars to five figures. None of them was the utility's own page. Rebate amounts change mid year, they differ by equipment tier and by whether the programme is income qualified, and a stale number here would cost a reader real money in a way that a missing number does not.
Go to the utility's own rebate page for the current figure. Three requirements are close to universal and worth knowing before you start: the equipment normally has to be ENERGY STAR certified, the installer normally has to hold a California C-20 licence, and the local building permit normally has to be finalised before the rebate pays out. That last one catches people, because an unpermitted install cannot usually be retrofitted into a rebate claim afterwards.
FAQ
No. The 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit and the 25D Residential Clean Energy Credit were both terminated for property placed in service after 31 December 2025, by Public Law 119-21, signed on 4 July 2025. A heat pump installed in 2026 does not qualify for either.
Yes, provided it was placed in service on or before 31 December 2025. You claim it on your 2025 return, which you file in 2026. Placed in service means installed and ready to use, so a contract signed in 2025 for work completed in 2026 does not qualify.
That was the 25C credit, and it ended on 31 December 2025 along with 25D. It was worth up to $2,000 a year for a qualifying heat pump. Many articles still describe it as current because they were written before the law changed in July 2025 and have not been updated since.
Not for new single family heat pump HVAC reservations. Those incentives are fully reserved, and the last day to create a reservation was 14 November 2025. If a contractor quotes you a 2026 job with a TECH incentive already deducted, ask them to confirm the reservation in writing before signing.
Single family HEEHRA funds were fully reserved statewide as of 24 February 2026, and new income verification applications are closed. Unapproved Northern California requests were placed on a waitlist, and later submissions join it. A Phase II is expected from the California Energy Commission, but its timing and funding have not been confirmed.
State and utility rebate programmes, which vary by where you live and still stack with each other. In California that mainly means your utility's own residential rebates. Check the utility's own page for current amounts, and expect requirements around ENERGY STAR equipment, a licensed C-20 contractor, and a finalised building permit.
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