Energy Efficient
Appliance Rebate Program
and ENERGY STAR® Recovery Funding


Amount Available: $300 million, nationally
California Energy Commission Allocated: $35.2 million

Cash for Appliances Website

California has been allocated $35.2 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to participate in the State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program (SEEARP). The California Energy Commission will administer the SEEARP that will provide rebates to consumers for purchasing qualified home appliances during the rebate period.

The rebate program will:

• Save energy by replacing inefficient appliances with more efficient ones.
• Make rebates for efficient appliances available to residential consumers.
• Leverage the ARRA funds with existing rebate programs and partnerships.
• Keep administrative costs low while meeting the federal monitoring and evaluation requirements.
• Provide state and national rebate tracking and accountability.
• Use current ENERGY STAR® consumer education and outreach materials.

California's Rebate Program

The California Appliance Rebate program will begin April 22, 2010. The Energy Commission has submitted its proposed Appliance Rebate Program design to the U.S. Department of Energy on October 14, 2009, and it was accepted by the DOE. Three residential appliance categories were selected to be eligible to receive rebates: clothes washers (rebate $100), refrigerators (rebate $200), and room/window air conditioners (rebate $50). These rebates are in addition to existing rebates offered by California's utilities or appliance manufacturers. The Energy Commission used the list of "pre-screened" appliances from the DOE. To qualify, the appliances must be ENERGY STAR-listed, meet CEE tier standards, and certified to the Energy Commission as meeting all state and federal appliance efficiency standards.

Please visit the Cash For Appliances website for more information.

Notice of Closure of Waiting List for Specific Appliance Categories. Posted December 9, 2011. (PDF file, 2 pages, 250 kb).

Notice of Closure of Rebate Offer Period for HVC and Water Heaters. Posted December 15, 2010.(PDF file, 2 pages, 45 kb).

Revised Notice of Closure of Rebate Offer Period for Specific Appliance Categories. Posted December 3, 2010.(PDF file, 2 pages, 37 kb).

Original Notice of Closure of Rebate Offer Period for Specific Appliance Categories (Superseded by the Above Revised Version). Posted November 23, 2010.

Notice of Availability - State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program Guidelines. (PDF file, 1 page, 44 kb)

Appliance Rebate Guidelines: State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program Fourth Edition, publication # CEC-400-2009-025-CMF-REV4. Adopted July 28, 2010
. Posted July 29, 2010. (PDF file, 16 pages, 332 kb)

Please see the Energy Commission Economic Stimulus formal proceeding documents page (docket # 09-OII-1) for meeting dates and proposed Guideline updates. Meeting dates are also listed in the calendar found in the right-hand column.

Official Partners - Part of the Program Success

To help publicize and encourage the Appliance Rebate Program, the Energy Commission is looking for Official Partners to provide in-kind services and support such as developing consumer outreach, marketing and promotional materials, train staff and sales personnel, and provide information on appliance availability and other rebates.

Please contact the Energy Commission Appliance Office if your company is interested in becoming an Official Partner. E-mail: appliances@energy.state.ca.us

For more information on Partnerships, Guidelines, workshop, announcements, and schedules, please sign up for Appliance Rebate listserve on the right.

Appliance Eligibility

To qualify for a rebate under the California Cash For Appliances Program, the appliances must be:

1. Energy Star®-rated,
2. Listed in the California Energy Commission Appliance Efficiency Database, AND
3. Meet the following requirements:
   

CEE refers to the Consortium for Energy Efficiency

A searchable list of qualifying appliances is available on the Cash For Appliances website at: www.cash4appliances.org/products/ The FINAL list of qualified appliances can be downloaded as Microsoft Excel files from that website page.

If you have questions regarding the qualifying appliances, please contact:

California Energy Commission, Appliances Office
E-mail Address: appliances @ energy.state.ca.us

California Application to DOE

More Information

Current Consumer Rebates & Incentives

If you are looking for consumer rebates and incentives available now, please visit the Flex Your Power website.

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State of California, Edmund G. Brown Jr., Governor