If you’ve been putting off replacing an aging furnace or a struggling window AC unit because you kept hearing “wait, there’s a big rebate coming,” it’s worth stopping to check whether that rebate is still there. A lot of what circulates online about California heat pump incentives right now is outdated, already closed, or was never quite accurate to begin with, and several articles ranking for this exact question quote different dollar figures for the same program. Here’s what we can actually confirm this month, specifically for homeowners in San Francisco and Marin County.
A quick note on two terms that come up constantly in this space: AMI stands for Area Median Income, the income threshold several rebates use to decide how much you qualify for. A CCA, or Community Choice Aggregation program, is a local agency that buys electricity on a city or county’s behalf instead of leaving that to PG&E alone. San Francisco’s CCA is CleanPowerSF. Marin County’s is MCE. Both run their own rebate programs, separate from anything the state or PG&E offers, which is exactly where the useful news is below.
The federal tax credit is gone
The Section 25C federal tax credit, which used to knock up to $2,000 off a qualifying heat pump installation, expired on December 31, 2025. It was eliminated by federal legislation signed in mid-2025 and does not apply to any heat pump installed in 2026, regardless of paperwork or timing. If you installed a qualifying heat pump before the end of 2025, you can still claim it on that year’s tax return with IRS Form 5695. If your installation happens this year, that particular credit is off the table, and any quote that still factors it in in 2026 is working from old information.
The state’s income-qualified rebate is now a waitlist
HEEHRA, the state’s income-qualified heat pump rebate delivered through TECH Clean California, has offered up to $8,000 for households under 80 percent of AMI and up to $4,000 for households between 80 and 150 percent of AMI. As of February 24, 2026, single-family HEEHRA rebates are fully reserved statewide. New income-verification applications are no longer being accepted anywhere in California, and any new reservation request now goes onto a waitlist that only gets funded if additional money is released. If a contractor tells you they can guarantee a HEEHRA rebate on a project starting today, that claim is worth checking rather than taking at face value, since installation before an approved reservation can disqualify the project entirely.
The standard TECH Clean California tier is nearly gone too
Separate from HEEHRA, TECH Clean California also runs a standard incentive tier that doesn’t require income qualification, covering both heat pump HVAC systems and heat pump water heaters. That tier was the one most homeowners without a strong income-qualification case were counting on. By TECH Clean California’s own reporting, that tier was already described as nearly reserved statewide as of mid-November 2025, months before HEEHRA closed. Realistically, there’s very little of it left to claim now, and it’s not something to build a project budget around without confirming availability first.
PG&E doesn’t run its own heat pump rebate right now
This surprises a lot of homeowners, since PG&E’s name shows up constantly in rebate searches. As of this writing, PG&E’s own rebates and incentives page doesn’t list a standalone residential heat pump HVAC rebate. Instead, PG&E points customers to Switch Is On, the state’s official incentive lookup tool, to search whatever is currently active for a given zip code. If a specific PG&E dollar figure is quoted somewhere online, treat it as unverified until you confirm it directly through that tool or through PG&E itself.
What’s actually available in San Francisco
San Francisco has its own path that doesn’t depend on any of the statewide programs above. CleanPowerSF, the city’s community electricity program run by the SFPUC, currently offers bill credits to residential customers who replace gas appliances with electric ones, including heat pump water heaters and HVAC heat pumps. The credits arrive as monthly bill credits, up to $50 a month, until the full incentive amount is reached, and heat pump equipment currently qualifies for one of the larger credit tiers in that program. This is a city-level program, separate from anything PG&E or the state runs, and it’s worth checking directly if you’re a CleanPowerSF customer, which covers most San Francisco residential accounts unless you’ve specifically opted out.
What’s actually available in Marin County
Most Marin County residential accounts get their electricity generation through MCE rather than PG&E. MCE runs its own rebate for heat pump water heaters and heat pump heating and cooling systems, delivered through a list of MCE-approved contractors who handle the paperwork as part of the installation. MCE’s rebate amounts have shifted more than once over the past year, so rather than repeat a number that could already be outdated by the time you read this, the right move is to confirm the current figure directly with MCE or with a contractor on their approved list before committing to a project.
How to verify before you sign anything
Given how much has changed this year, the most useful thing a homeowner can do before agreeing to a heat pump project is verify, not assume. A few ways to do that:
- Use the Switch Is On tool to search current incentives by zip code and equipment type. It’s the state’s own aggregator and tends to reflect real-time program status more reliably than a contractor’s marketing page.
- Ask specifically whether a rebate is reserved and approved for your project, not just “eligible” in general. HEEHRA now requires an approved reservation before installation begins, so a project that starts before approval may not qualify at all.
- If a quote leans heavily on a specific rebate number, ask where that number came from and how recently it was confirmed. Several programs that were paying $3,000 or more earlier this year have already run out of allocated funds, sometimes with little public notice.
Incentive programs like these are usually funded from a fixed pool of ratepayer or cap-and-trade dollars rather than an open-ended budget, which is exactly why they can close mid-year without warning. That’s not a flaw specific to any one program, it’s just how this funding structure works, and it’s the reason “as of” dates matter more than the headline dollar amount.
What this means for your decision
None of this means a heat pump upgrade stopped making sense. Heat pump and mini-split systems still handle San Francisco and Marin’s fog, mild winters, and the kind of shoulder-season temperature swings that older systems, ducted and ductless alike, often struggle with. It just means the rebate math looks different than it did a year ago, and the incentives still standing tend to be local rather than statewide. Building a budget around a rebate that’s already reserved is the surest way to end up disappointed partway through a project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the $2,000 federal heat pump tax credit still available in 2026? No. The Section 25C credit expired December 31, 2025, and doesn’t apply to systems installed in 2026. If you installed before that date, it can still be claimed on your 2025 tax return.
Can I still get the HEEHRA rebate this year? Only through a waitlist. Single-family HEEHRA rebates have been fully reserved statewide since February 24, 2026, and new projects are only funded if additional money becomes available.
Does PG&E offer its own heat pump rebate? Not as a standalone program right now. PG&E directs customers to the statewide Switch Is On tool to check what’s currently active for their address.
What rebates are available specifically in San Francisco? CleanPowerSF’s Electrify Your Home program offers monthly bill credits for replacing gas appliances with electric ones, including heat pumps, for most San Francisco residential accounts.
What rebates are available specifically in Marin County? MCE runs its own heat pump rebate through a list of approved contractors. Amounts have changed more than once this year, so current figures should be confirmed directly with MCE or an MCE-listed contractor.
If you’re weighing a heat pump against a straight furnace, AC, or water heater replacement, the most useful next step is a free estimate that includes a current check of what your address actually qualifies for today, not what was available last year. We’ll walk through your specific utility or CCA, your equipment needs, and what’s realistically fundable before you commit to anything.