SRP and Federal Rebates for Heat Pumps and AC
In September 2026, SRP customers can still claim the Cool Cash rebate on qualifying high efficiency AC and heat pump installs, paid per ton through participating contractors. The federal 25C tax credit ended for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. Income qualifying households can apply to Efficiency Arizona for HEAR heat pump rebates. Check each program page for current amounts.
Rebate advice goes stale faster than anything else in this trade. A page written in 2024 will confidently tell you about a federal tax credit that no longer exists and an APS rebate that was withdrawn. So treat what follows as a map of where to look, with the official page for each program linked at the bottom, and check the numbers yourself before you sign anything.
Everything here was reviewed in September 2026.
What is still available in Mesa?
| Program | Who it is for | Status in September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| SRP Cool Cash | SRP residential customers | Live, paid per ton through participating contractors |
| APS equipment rebates | APS residential customers | Ended for AC and heat pump equipment at the start of 2026 |
| APS Cool Rewards | APS customers with a smart thermostat | Live, a demand response credit |
| Federal 25C tax credit | All taxpayers | Ended for property placed in service after December 31, 2025 |
| HEAR through Efficiency Arizona | Income qualifying households | Live, application based |
| Manufacturer and distributor promotions | Anyone buying new equipment | Seasonal, changes constantly |
How does SRP Cool Cash work?
SRP runs its AC rebate through participating contractors rather than paying you directly after the fact. The structure has been consistent for a while: a per ton amount, tiered by compressor type, with single stage equipment at the bottom, multi stage in the middle and variable capacity at the top. There is a cap on the total, and there is a minimum efficiency requirement.
Three details decide whether you qualify.
- Efficiency floor. The equipment has to hit SRP’s minimum SEER2 rating, and the AHRI certified pairing is what counts. In recent program cycles that floor has been 15.2 SEER2.
- Participating contractor. The rebate is claimed through the installer. If your contractor is not in the program, there is no rebate.
- Installation deadline. Every program cycle has an end date, and equipment has to be installed before it.
Amounts and deadlines are set per cycle, which is why this post does not print a figure. SRP publishes the current schedule on its own rebate page, linked in the sources below. Pull it up, read the terms, and ask your contractor to confirm the rebate on the written quote before you accept it.
What happened to the APS rebate?
APS customers had a residential AC and heat pump rebate for years. It ended at the start of 2026 after the Arizona Corporation Commission reduced the utility’s efficiency program budget.
What remains for APS households is Cool Rewards, a smart thermostat program that pays a credit in return for letting the utility adjust your setpoint briefly during peak demand events. It is worth enrolling in, and it is a different kind of thing to an equipment rebate. If you are an APS customer replacing a system this year, budget without a utility rebate and treat anything you find as a bonus.
Is the federal tax credit gone?
For most people, yes. The section 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit covered 30 percent of project cost on qualifying heat pumps, capped at $2,000 a year. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, terminated it for property placed in service after December 31, 2025.
So the question is what you did and when.
- Equipment placed in service in 2025 that met the requirements can still be claimed on the return for that tax year, using Form 5695.
- Equipment placed in service in 2026 does not qualify.
If a contractor is still selling you a system on the strength of a $2,000 federal credit in 2026, that is a reason to be careful with everything else they told you. The IRS page and the ENERGY STAR tax credit page are both linked below, and they are the two places to verify this.
What is HEAR and can you get it?
HEAR is the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate program, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act and administered by each state. In Arizona it runs as Efficiency Arizona through the Governor’s Office of Resiliency.
The headline for HVAC is up to $8,000 toward a qualifying electric heat pump for space heating and cooling, inside a household cap of $14,000 across all eligible measures. Related work can qualify too, including electrical panel and wiring upgrades where the new equipment requires them.
The limits matter as much as the amounts.
- Households above 150 percent of area median income are not eligible.
- Homes that already have a heat pump are not eligible for the heat pump rebate.
- The program has changed which project types qualify since it opened, so read the current rules.
- Funding is finite and application based, so timing matters.
If your household might qualify, start the application before you commit to a replacement date. The paperwork takes longer than the install does.
Does your rate plan change the value of an upgrade?
It does, and people miss this. SRP and APS both run time of use plans with different peak windows. SRP’s current residential plans use evening windows such as 5pm to 10pm or 6pm to 9pm on weekdays, while APS time of use plans center on 4pm to 7pm. A variable capacity system that runs long and gentle behaves differently on a demand based plan than a single stage unit that slams on at full load during your peak hour.
Before you buy, look at your own plan. Sometimes the cheapest saving available to a landlord with a rental near ASU in Tempe is a plan change plus a decent thermostat schedule, well before anyone talks about new equipment.
A short process that avoids disappointment
- Confirm who supplies your power, SRP or APS. Mesa has both.
- Read the current rebate terms on that utility’s own page.
- Check whether your household might qualify for HEAR, before you book the install.
- Get the AHRI reference and SEER2 rating on the written quote.
- Ask the contractor to list every rebate they are claiming on your behalf, with the amount.
- Keep the invoice, the AHRI certificate and the permit record.
Where we fit
We check the live program terms before quoting, put the rebate math on the written quote, and file the contractor side of the paperwork with you. Our heat pump page covers what a heat pump costs to install here and how it handles an Arizona winter.