Keep your gas furnace and the rebate still works. Remove it and it does not.

Last verified: 3 August 2026   four primary documents   three states with a published date

The two provisions, in the Notice’s own words

These sit in the same section — §3.3, Programmatic Guidance Changes — a page apart.

“Removing program allowances for upgrades for fuel-switching (i.e. replacement of non-electric appliances) and instead allowing rebates for upgrading HVAC and appliances only from existing electric equipment to more efficient electric equipment. HVAC and electric appliances in new construction will continue to be allowable.”

Program Notice 26-2, §3.3, page 4

“Allowing dwellings to retain existing fossil-fuel HVAC systems when installing a heat pump, even if the heat pump will not become the primary source of heating and cooling.”

Program Notice 26-2, §3.3, page 5

The Frequently Asked Questions document circulated to grantees puts the combination as a direct question, at PRAI section 4.2.2, page 8:

“Is it allowable to install an electric measure when the current fuel source is gas, provided this does not constitute a fuel-switching action and the existing gas-fired system remains in place and is not decommissioned? — Yes. Electric appliances are allowable for upgrading from existing electric equipment to more efficient electric equipment and for new appliances that do not replace non-electric appliances.”

Home Energy Rebates FAQ, PRAI §4.2.2, page 8

Where the 31 August date comes from

Almost every account of this change gives 31 August 2026 as the federal deadline. It is worth seeing which document that date is in, because the two documents set the deadline in different ways.

Program Notice 26-2, page 3 — the Notice itself, effective 29 May 2026:

“Launched programs are required to make changes within three months of the publication of this Program Notice unless there are extenuating circumstances that require DOE approval beyond this time period.”

Program Notice 26-2, page 3

The Notice sets the deadline as a period running from its own publication and does not name a calendar date. Three months from 29 May 2026 is 29 August 2026. The phrase “August 31” does not appear in the Notice.

The Frequently Asked Questions, page 3 — a separate document, updated June 2026, circulated to grantees:

“States have until August 31, 2026, to continue to make new reservations under prior guidance. All projects reserved on or before August 31 can be completed and paid after August 31. However, all new reservations made after August 31, 2026 must comply with the Program Notices. See the Program Notice Compliance Checklist for the steps that must be completed in the rebate process to document a formal reservation.”

Home Energy Rebates FAQ, page 3

That is the source of the date. It is a real instruction from DOE to the states, and it is more specific than the Notice: it distinguishes making a reservation from completing and paying for the work. It is also not in the Notice, and the FAQ is not published alongside it. If you are working to a deadline, those are two different documents to be working from, and the second one is the one with the date in it.

Six dates are now in play

Between the two federal documents and the states that have published their own timing, the change does not land on a single day.

What each state has published

Rebates are run by the states, so the date that applies to you is the one your state has published, not the federal one. We checked the programme pages directly. The table below has three parts, and the third part is about us rather than about the states.

Published a deadline of their own (three)

Georgia

“DOE’s updated guidance (see Program Notice 26-2) must be implemented by August 31, 2026. To meet this requirement, fuel switching HEAR scopes of work submitted online by 10:00 am ET on August 10, 2026. Resident applicant (homeowner) profiles associated with each fuel-switching projects must also be submitted by this deadline. After this date, fuel switching projects will no longer be accepted, and only electric-to–higher-efficiency electric upgrades will be eligible.”

Georgia’s Home Energy Rebates — HEAR Program Update — source

Arizona

“August 1, 2026 – Current Guidelines Application Deadline: Arizonans who intend to apply for rebates supporting an upgrade from existing gas to electric appliances are encouraged to submit an application by this date. … August 28, 2026 – Rebate Reservation Deadline: The final day for the Efficiency Arizona team to secure a rebate reservation under the current guidelines. … September 1, 2026 – New Guidelines Take Effect: All rebate reservations made on or after this date will be subject to the new program guidelines.”

Efficiency Arizona — Significant Changes Coming to the Efficiency Arizona Program — source

Wisconsin

“Starting September 1, 2026 we can no longer accept retail applications or coupons replacing fossil-fuel appliances. The last day to submit post-purchase retail applications for appliances replacing fossil fuel equipment is August 31, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. CT. Lowe’s coupon reservations must be made by August 31, at 5:30 p.m. CT. Lowe’s coupons approved by this deadline are eligible through their expiration date. … New eligibility requirements take effect on September 1, 2026.”

Focus on Energy — Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates — source

Checked, no fuel-switching deadline published (four)

These pages were open and readable on 3 August 2026 and carried nothing about Program Notice 26-2 or a fuel-switching cut-off. That does not mean nothing is coming; it means nothing was published on the page we checked, on the day we checked it.

On Colorado in particular: its page carries an August date that reads like the ones above and is not one of them. It limits applications in one region by funding, and the page does not tie it to the federal change. We are noting it here so the two do not get read as the same thing.

Could not be retrieved (eight)

We could not open these pages. That is a fact about our request, not about the state, and we are keeping it in its own row rather than recording it as silence.

Separately, California’s programme page has reported single-family rebates as fully reserved statewide since February 2026, with a waitlist. That is a funding position rather than a Program Notice 26-2 deadline, which is why it is mentioned here and not in the tables above.

The insulation level your home will have to meet is not published anywhere

Program Notice 26-2 adds a condition before a heating or cooling upgrade, on page 4:

“Requiring that homes utilize rebates for insulation and air sealing prior to installing heating and cooling upgrades, unless they are already appropriately insulated and sealed to a DOE approved, state-specified level.”

Program Notice 26-2, §3.3, page 4

The FAQ, page 8, was asked what that level is:

“Can DOE offer guidance on DOE-approved insulation and air sealing levels? — No. DOE does not set standards for states for appropriate insulation and air sealing levels. States must update their Narrative Documents to include the requirements by which they will determine if a dwelling unit requires additional insulation and air sealing, and submit for DOE to review and approve.”

Home Energy Rebates FAQ, page 8

Narrative Documents are submitted to DOE for review and approval rather than published. So the standard that will decide whether your home needs insulation work first is set by your state, approved federally, and held in a document that is not a public one. If your state has published its level, we would like to see it.

The Compliance Checklist

The FAQ passage that gives the 31 August date ends by pointing readers somewhere else: “See the Program Notice Compliance Checklist for the steps that must be completed in the rebate process to document a formal reservation.”

That document defines what counts as a reservation, which is the thing the deadline turns on. We looked for it on the Department of Energy’s own resources page for these programmes, where the phrase does not appear, and at the file paths used by the other documents in this set. We did not find it. It is referred to once, in a document that is itself circulated rather than published.

What to do if you heat with gas

We are not going to tell you what you qualify for — that is your state’s decision and the answer depends on rules that are still being written. What the documents support saying is this:

• Replacing a gas appliance with an electric one, funded by these rebates, is the thing being removed.
• Installing a heat pump alongside a gas system that stays in place is addressed directly, and the FAQ answers it “Yes”.
• What matters for timing is when a reservation is secured, not when the work is done. Both Georgia and Arizona describe it that way, and the FAQ states that projects reserved on or before 31 August can be completed and paid afterwards.
• The date that binds you is your state’s. Three have published one. If yours is not among them, ask the programme directly and ask for the answer in writing.

Sources

• Program Notice 26-2 — High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate (HEEHR) Program for States and Territories. Effective Date: May 29, 2026 · 9 pages. publication page · PDF we read
• Program Notice 26-1 — Home Owner Managing Energy Savings (HOMES) Rebate Program. Effective Date: May 29, 2026. publication page · PDF we read
• Program Notice 26-3 — HEEHR Program for Indian Tribes — carries the same fuel-switching change. Effective Date: May 29, 2026. publication page
• Home Energy Rebates: Frequently Asked Questions — Circulated to grantees by NASEO — Updated June 2026. Updated June 2026 · 12 pages. PDF we read

A note on where we read them. The publication pages on energy.gov are rendered in the browser, and a plain request to them returns a page without the document on it. The PDFs linked above as “PDF we read” are the copies circulated to grantees by NASEO, the national association of state energy officials, and those are the files this page is quoting. We are naming them so you can check that we read what we say we read.

Questions

Can I still get a rebate if I heat with gas?

Program Notice 26-2 removes rebates for replacing a non-electric appliance with an electric one, and allows them for upgrading from existing electric equipment to more efficient electric equipment. The same Notice allows a dwelling to keep its existing fossil-fuel HVAC system when installing a heat pump, even where the heat pump will not be the primary source of heating and cooling. The NASEO FAQ was asked whether an electric measure is allowable where the current fuel source is gas and the gas system stays in place, and answered: Yes. So the gas system staying is the condition, not the obstacle.

Is the federal deadline 31 August 2026?

Program Notice 26-2 states on page 3 that launched programs are required to make changes within three months of the publication of the Notice, unless there are extenuating circumstances that require DOE approval. The Notice carries an effective date of 29 May 2026 and does not name a calendar date. The date 31 August 2026 appears in the separate Frequently Asked Questions document circulated to grantees, page 3, which states that states have until August 31, 2026 to continue to make new reservations under prior guidance. Both are quoted on this page.

What insulation level will my home have to meet?

Program Notice 26-2 requires that homes use rebates for insulation and air sealing before heating and cooling upgrades, unless they are already insulated and sealed to a DOE approved, state-specified level. The FAQ was asked whether DOE could offer guidance on what that level is, and answered: No. DOE does not set standards for states. States must put their own requirements into their Narrative Documents and submit them to DOE for review and approval. Narrative Documents are submitted to DOE rather than published, so the level that will apply to your home is not something you can read anywhere today.

Which states have published a deadline of their own?

As of 3 August 2026 we found three: Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. Four more state pages were checked and carry no fuel-switching deadline. Eight could not be retrieved and are listed separately, because our failing to open a page is not the same as a state publishing nothing.

What is the Program Notice Compliance Checklist?

The FAQ refers readers to it for the steps that must be completed to document a formal reservation — which is what decides whether a project counts as reserved before the deadline. We looked for it on the Department of Energy resources page and at the file locations the other documents use, and did not find it. If you have a link to it, we would like to have it.

Does this affect the HOMES programme too?

Program Notice 26-1 covers HOMES and makes different changes; the fuel-switching change is in 26-2, which covers HEEHR for states and territories, and in 26-3, which covers HEEHR administered by Indian Tribes. All three carry the same effective date of 29 May 2026.

Wisconsin’s programme is one of the state rebate pages we track; its deadline above is the one Focus on Energy has published. Our page for the state is Wisconsin heat pump rebates.