What Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs has actually published, what it points homeowners at meanwhile, and which states are open today.
Tennessee has announced Home Energy Rebate Programs: Home Owner Managing Energy Savings (HOMES) and High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate (HEEHR) through Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs and has not opened it for applications. That is the most common position in the country: 31 of 50 states are in it, against 13 that are taking applications.
Read September 23, 2026.
Each figure carries the condition Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs attached to it, and the condition is the half that decides whether the figure applies to a particular house. Where the office wrote a sentence beside the number, that sentence is reproduced whole and linked to the page it was read from, because a paraphrase of an eligibility rule is a different statement than the rule.
Lesser of $8,000 or 80% of project cost
Applies HOMES, single family, 35% or greater modelled energy savings, under 80% of area median income.
35% and greater | Less than 80% AMI* | Lesser of $8,000 or 80% of project costTennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Lesser of $4,000 or 80% of project cost
Applies HOMES, single family, 20% to 34% modelled energy savings, under 80% of area median income.
20%-34% | Less than 80% AMI* | Lesser of $4,000 or 80% of project costTennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Up to $8,000
Applies HEEHR, heat pump for space heating and cooling, listed as a measure proposed for the Tennessee programme.
Heat pump for space heating & cooling | Up to $8,000Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Up to $1,750
Applies HEEHR measure proposed for the Tennessee programme.
Heat pump water heater | Up to $1,750Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Up to $4,000
Applies HEEHR, electrical load service center upgrade.
Electrical load service center upgrade | Up to $4,000Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Up to $2,500
Applies HEEHR, electric wiring.
Electric wiring | Up to $2,500Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Up to $1,600
Applies HEEHR, insulation, air sealing and ventilation together.
Insulation, air sealing & ventilation | Up to $1,600Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Income and the contractor list are where the largest number of applications stop, and both are usually discovered late. Nationally 34 states publish an income rule and 28 of those tier the award by it, meaning income decides how much is paid rather than only whether anything is; 23 require the work to go through a contractor the programme has approved, which generally excludes work a homeowner does themselves.
Income decides the size of the award in Tennessee, or whether there is one at all. The whole home programme is open at any income, the appliance programme is capped at 150% of area median income, and both pay a larger share below 80%.
A low- or moderate-income household is one where an individual or family has a total annual income less than 150% of the median income of the area where the individual or family resides. For households with a total annual income below 80% of the area median income (AMI), rebates can cover a higher percentage of the total project costs.Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
The work has to go through a contractor the programme has approved. the work will run through the Tennessee Valley Authority's Quality Contractor Network, and the contractor reserves and receives the rebate
TDEC OEP is partnering with TVA and its Quality Contractor Network (QCN) to install appliances under the HEEHR Program. The participating household will choose a QCN contractor who will reserve the rebate, install the appliance, and receive the rebate funds directly.Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
A utility programme is a different thing from a state one, with its own rules, its own contractor list and its own deadline, and in a handful of states it is worth more than the state programme it stands in for. 31 state offices publish a route like this, and on most of those pages it sits well below the announcement that brought the reader there.
The state tells a homeowner who needs help today to go to the TVA's own rebates or to weatherization instead.
Although not an incentive under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), there are residential energy efficiency rebates available from TVA EnergyRight for qualifying HVAC systems, duct and air sealing, heat pump water heaters, insulation, windows, and HVAC tune-ups.Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
These are two separate programmes and conflating them is the commonest error on pages about this. A Tennessee rebate is money off the job, applied for through Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs under its own rules. The federal credit is money off a tax bill, claimed when filing, with no application and no approval step. Different timing, different paperwork, and qualifying for one says nothing about qualifying for the other.
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs does not address on its own pages whether the two can be claimed on one job. Only 10 state offices do, so the silence is normal rather than a signal either way.
Tennessee is in the larger group. Only 13 of the fifty states are taking applications from homeowners, and 31 have announced a programme without opening it, which is the commonest position in the country. The states that are open are Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin.
Across the country 155 separate dollar figures are printed and 21 states print none at all. The spread has little to do with climate: it tracks how each state chose to divide a federal allocation between a small number of large whole home awards and a large number of small per appliance ones.
Tennessee read September 23, 2026 from Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Office of Energy Programs’s own pages, linked beside every figure and every rule. A programme can open, reserve its funding and stop taking applications inside a single season, so the office page linked above is what governs on the day. Every state is on the home energy rebates hub.