Are There Still Energy Rebates for LA Homeowners in 2026?
Yes, but the money moved. The two federal credits homeowners relied on — 25C, worth up to $3,200 a year on windows, insulation, HVAC and panels, and 25D, the 30% credit on solar and batteries — both ended for equipment placed in service after December 31, 2025. What is left in 2026 is local utility money, and in the LA area it is larger than the federal credit was. LADWP pays roughly $1,000–$1,250 per ton on ducted heat pumps and $1,500–$2,500 per ton on ductless, plus up to $2,500 on a heat pump water heater. Glendale Water & Power pays $1,000 per ton up to $5,000 when a heat pump replaces gas, $4,000 on a heat pump water heater, and $1,000 on a panel upgrade. Burbank Water & Power pays $1,000 on a heat pump and $1,500 on a heat pump water heater. The catch is new — every one of these requires a finalized permit.
If you are pricing a remodel in Los Angeles this year using an article written in 2024, your budget is wrong in two directions at once. The federal money is gone. The local money went up.
Here is the actual 2026 picture for homeowners in Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale, along with the one procedural change that decides whether you collect any of it. These are program amounts as published at the time of writing, not a quote, and utility programs change without notice.
What ended
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, terminated both residential energy tax credits roughly seven years ahead of their scheduled sunset.
| Credit | What it was worth | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit | Up to $3,200 per year — $2,000 for a heat pump or heat pump water heater, $1,200 for insulation, windows, doors and panels | Ended for property placed in service after Dec 31, 2025 |
| 25D Residential Clean Energy Credit | 30% of solar and battery cost, no dollar cap, batteries 3 kWh and up | Ended for property placed in service after Dec 31, 2025 |
Two details matter. Placed in service, not paid for or contracted — a system installed in December 2025 counts even if the invoice cleared in January. And if you did finish qualifying work in 2025, you claim it on the 2025 return you file in 2026, and unused 25D credit still carries forward.
What this really changed is the shape of the incentive. The federal credits were non-refundable tax credits — you needed enough tax liability to absorb them, and you waited until April. What replaced them is a check or a bill credit from your utility, usually within a few months of the job. For a retired homeowner with low tax liability, 2026 is arguably better than 2025 was.
What Los Angeles pays now
LADWP raised its residential rebates for equipment installed on or after November 1, 2025.
| Measure | LADWP rebate |
|---|---|
| Central ducted, split or packaged heat pump | $1,000–$1,250 per ton |
| Ductless, mini-split or multi-split heat pump | $1,500–$2,500 per ton |
| Heat pump water heater, replacing gas | Up to $2,500 |
The top ductless tier requires high-efficiency equipment — above 20.5 SEER2 and 9.1 HSPF2. The water heater rebate requires a tank of 30 gallons or more with a UEF of 3.3 or better, replacing a gas unit, one per residence, and new construction and ADUs are excluded. Applications need a paid itemized invoice, the AHRI certificate and a final approved building permit, filed within 12 months of purchase.
Run the math on a four-ton ductless system at the top tier and the rebate lands near $10,000 — five times what 25C ever paid on the same equipment.
What Glendale pays now
Glendale Water & Power increased its amounts effective November 1, 2025, and its structure is the most generous of the three for fuel switching.
| Measure | GWP rebate |
|---|---|
| Heat pump replacing a gas furnace or gas/electric system | $1,000 per ton, up to $5,000 |
| Heat pump replacing an existing heat pump | $500 per ton, up to $2,500 |
| Heat pump water heater replacing gas | $4,000 |
| Electrical panel upgrade | $1,000 |
| Electric range, wall oven or range/oven combo | $400 |
| Heat pump clothes dryer | $400 |
| Room AC | $400 per unit, up to $800 |
| Whole house fan / ceiling fan | $100 each |
| Variable speed pool pump | $400 |
| Turf replacement | $3 per sqft |
Note the doubling: GWP pays twice as much per ton when you are getting off gas as when you are replacing an existing heat pump. That is a deliberate fuel-switching incentive, and it is the single biggest reason a Glendale homeowner with an old gas furnace should not simply swap in another gas furnace out of habit.
Note also the condition on the panel: the $1,000 is only paid when the panel upgrade is paired with a heat pump HVAC or heat pump water heater install, with a finalized electrical permit. Most 1940s–1960s Glendale houses on a 100-amp service need that panel anyway before a heat pump water heater will run — the practical read is that the panel upgrade and the equipment belong in one job, scoped together and permitted together.
What Burbank pays now
Burbank Water & Power runs a smaller Residential Building Electrification Rebate Program — roughly $1,000 for replacing a fuel-based HVAC system with an AHRI-certified heat pump, and about $1,500 for a heat pump water heater, with panel support available in some cases. Smaller than Glendale's, but it stacks with South Coast AQMD's GO ZERO program, which has paid $1,000–$3,000 for single-family heat pump and heat pump water heater projects across the basin.
The rule that actually decides your rebate
Here is the change nobody has written up yet, and it matters more than any single dollar figure.
Every remaining incentive is permit-gated. The federal credits were honor-system tax filings. The programs that replaced them are administered by municipal utilities that require, before they cut a check:
- a paid, itemized invoice from a licensed contractor
- the AHRI certificate for the specific equipment installed
- a finalized permit — mechanical for HVAC, plumbing for gas capping and fuel switching, electrical for panels and new circuits
- an application filed within 12 months of purchase
That flips a long-standing bit of LA folk wisdom. For years, skipping a permit on a like-for-like equipment swap was a quiet gamble that cost you nothing until you sold. In 2026 it costs you $4,000 the day the water heater goes in. And if you already have unpermitted work in the house, the rebate application is exactly the kind of document trail that makes legalizing unpermitted work worth doing before the remodel rather than after.
It also interacts with the 2025 energy code that took effect January 1, 2026. Duct and equipment work already triggers Title 24 compliance and field verification on most LA projects, so the inspection you need for the rebate is largely the inspection you were going to need anyway. The added cost of doing it correctly is far smaller than the rebate you collect for having done it.
How to sequence a 2026 project
The homeowners collecting the most this year are not doing anything exotic. They are doing four things in the right order.
- Check the panel first. Most pre-1970 LA and Valley houses are on 100 amps. A heat pump plus a heat pump water heater plus an induction range will not fit, and in Glendale the panel rebate is forfeited if you do it as a standalone job later.
- Bundle the mechanical work into an open-wall phase. If ducts are being run or replaced, doing it while walls are open is dramatically cheaper — the same logic that governs adding central air to an older LA house with no existing ductwork.
- Pull the permits in the contractor's name and finalize them. No final, no rebate. Build the inspection into the schedule instead of treating it as paperwork to chase later.
- File within 12 months of purchase. Not 12 months of completion. Diary the date at the start.
One more thing worth saying plainly. If a contractor tells you in 2026 that you will "get 30% back on your taxes," they are quoting a credit that no longer exists. Ask instead which specific utility program they are naming, what the finalized permit requirement is, and who files the application. A contractor who runs these rebates regularly will answer in one sentence.
Dn Builders Group Inc Services is a licensed general contractor in Burbank (CA Lic. #1139710) serving greater Los Angeles, Glendale, Pasadena and the San Fernando Valley, including HVAC-integrated whole-home renovation work.
Questions
Can I still claim the 25C or solar tax credit on work I do in 2026?
No. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, terminated both credits about seven years early. Section 25C, the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, and Section 25D, the 30% Residential Clean Energy Credit, apply only to property placed in service on or before December 31, 2025. If your system was finished by that date you can still claim it on your 2025 return during the 2026 filing season, and unused 25D credit can still carry forward. Work placed in service in 2026 gets nothing federally. Be careful with rebate-finder sites and contractor blogs right now — a large share of them still display the old 25C language as if it were current.
Why does a rebate need a building permit now?
Because the payer changed. A federal tax credit was self-reported on a tax form and nobody at the IRS asked for a permit final. A municipal utility rebate is a check or a bill credit issued after a human reviews your paperwork, and the paperwork list is specific — a paid itemized invoice, the AHRI certificate for the equipment, and a finalized building, mechanical, plumbing or electrical permit depending on the measure. Glendale, for example, requires a finalized gas capping and fuel switching plumbing permit plus an electrical permit before it will pay the heat pump water heater rebate. Unpermitted work is now a cash loss on the same day it happens, not just a resale problem later.
What happened to the state and federal rebate programs like TECH Clean California?
The single-family side ran out. TECH Clean California and the federally funded HEEHRA rebates stopped accepting new single-family heat pump reservations once those funds were fully committed in late 2025. Multifamily channels are still live in places — income-qualified multifamily projects can still see roughly $7,500–$8,000 per eligible heat pump — and South Coast AQMD's GO ZERO program has run single-family heat pump and heat pump water heater rebates in the $1,000–$3,000 range. Program funding in this space is first-come and gets exhausted, so confirm status before you count a number in a budget.
Can I stack a utility rebate with other incentives?
Usually yes, and stacking is where the real money is now. A four-ton ductless heat pump in the City of Los Angeles at the top LADWP tier can recover around $10,000 on its own, and thermostat, water heater and AQMD incentives sit on top of it. Glendale is where sequencing matters most — the $1,000 electrical panel rebate is only paid when it is paired with a heat pump HVAC or heat pump water heater installation, so splitting those two jobs across two different years throws the panel rebate away.
How long do I have to apply after the work is done?
Twelve months from the purchase date is the common window across LADWP, Glendale and most local programs, and it runs from purchase, not from when the inspector signs off. That is the failure mode we see most often — the job finishes, the permit final drags, the homeowner files at month fourteen and the application is rejected on timing alone. Set the application date at the start of the job, not the end.