KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How to Use Electrification Rebates to Add Massive Value for Your Clients

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

Summary:This episode is an essential guide to the complex world of home electrification rebates and tax credits available through the Inflation Reduction Act. Expert Anita Singha breaks down the significant financial incentives for homeowners for things like heat pumps, solar panels, and EV chargers. For real estate agents, this is a masterclass in becoming a true advisor. Learn the specifics of these programs to provide immense value to both buyers and sellers, helping you differentiate your service and leverage green incentives as a powerful closing tool.

And the fact of the matter is you're heating your home and cooling your home and heating your water are the two biggest loads to your electric bill. They cost most in your home. So this is an opportunity to, yes, decarbonize and do right for the environment and our grid, but also for your energy usage. And the products are, there's more and more come in for sure. Hello, this is Izumi Tanaka. I am a Greenwilter, Green Home Consultant, and the host of this podcast, Home Green Homes.

The much-anticipated rebate part of the Inflation Reduction Act was finally launched in California in November. I was able to interview Anita Singer, the Senior Marketing Director for the Switches-On, which is the platform for not only the IRA, but also all other financials. financial incentives available in California for homeowners to upgrade their home appliances at deep discount. I asked Anita to explain what this rebate program, also known as Hira, is all about, and how to utilize it as well as other incentives available in California. If you are not in California, you might want to check the Department of Energy website to

see the availability of this program in your own. state. New York is another state which has already launched this program. There are several other states that are getting ready to launch around the country. If you are listening to this episode with audio only, I have the website information in the show notes for the platforms that we discuss in the interview. Also, I will have some clarifications with regards to Hira rebates at the end of that episode. Thank you so much, Anita, for joining me today. Great. I'm really pleased to be here. Thanks for inviting me and I'm happy to talk about all things, Hira and incentives. Thank you so much. So let's dive right in. So Hira is the home, okay, home energy,

efficiency. Oh, you can tell me. Oh, man. Oh, no. I was, I was, I thought you almost had it. I know. I did. It's a lovely acronym that stands for the home energy efficiency rebate. Something. Yeah. So tell me about your role at building decarbonization coalition as a senior marketing manager,

particularly for this program, correct? Yeah. So I work on all things, switches on in terms, and there's a whole team of us, but my role is to make sure that I'm working with our program implementers. So that's a lot of the incentive programs that you see in our finder. And the big one this year has been here. So the role that we have is not only updating the website and having the right content and making sure all of the specifications and the information that contractors need

and contractors need are on our site, but also doing marketing to drive traffic and awareness to the switches on as people are going through the process of a home improvement, wanting to look at for a heat pump. This is a pretty specific audience of people in that moment of their journey. So we're always trying to work on capturing attention at the right time. So that's my role, always looking at switches on getting folks so that people can see all of the rebates and incentives that can stack together and find that right contractor. that specializes in heat pumps and is a vetted professional that we have an

right. So it's a really fun work and really focused on what we call our campaign, The Switches On. And we work all together at the BDC at the Building Decarbonization Coalition. Thank you so much. So let's talk about this particular program, Hira. I have been talking about inflation reduction act since it was enacted more than two years ago. And I have been anxiously waiting for this rebate part of the program to roll out.

I've been telling a lot of homeowners that there's going to be rebates available, and especially for low-income household, you can get all these things free. And so I have been just so anxiously waiting for this moment. And it finally rolled out on November 12th last month. So I think I would like to hear from you what Hira is and how it works. Yeah, that's a great question. And this is the first phase of a lot of funding coming from the Inflation Reduction Act. So just to pause there, that was one of the most, it was the largest climate.

bill ever passed. It is a huge accomplishment that the federal government passed this money. And then as it, you know, then the federal government started working with the states to implement these programs. California and New York being some of the first to start rolling out incentives. So this first rollout of incentives, it's $45 million at first for just focused on heat pump adoption as part the energy transition in California. So it is to really reduce those project costs, installing a H-back and water heater. They're not cheap projects. They require additional work that a consumer may not have realized. So the goal is to really get those costs down. This time focused on low-middle-income, qualified consumers within California with a real

huge focus of that federal money really going to parts of the community consumers that need that help. And I wouldn't say it's all the way free, although gets close to it because I don't want to, you know, misrepresented, but it's a huge chunk of money for like HVAC, you know, $9,500 for a single family. If they stack that with a tech incentive and they qualify their 80% of the area, median income. So all those tools to see if you qualify and if you have contractors are all available on the switch is on. This is a really good way, place to start it. So this is just the first rollout. $9,500 goes a lot way to reduce those project costs. And in some cases, we have heard that when a consumer is able to work and you can work with your contractor on this, it gets really,

you know, can be a huge laundry list of incentives. There can be local incentives from your utility water districts, other types of utilities incentives. Now you can stack now with this $9,500. So in some cases, the cost to the project has been close to zero. It has been almost free, and that is working with your contractor who does know, would know a lot about what's available out there. So yeah, really exciting and really a huge part of California's goal to be, you know, to reduce carbon emissions.

and your interest to decarbonize our homes, right? Right. Right. So my understanding is that 80% or less of area median income is qualified as low-income household. And 80 to 150% is considered moderate income household. That's right. Yeah. Right. And so then the low-income household is eligible to receive. up to 100% rebate, point of purchase, meaning you don't have to put out any money up front. They get an $8,000 rebate with Hira, the way it's set up right now. Yes.

And that goes to the contractor directly. So the contractor would come to your home and do a quote and tell you the project is, you know, the total cost of the project, including their labor. they would apply for the incentive of the on behalf of the consumer. The consumer has to be pre-qualified that they are 80% AMI, right? So that is how this would work. They, it is like, yeah, you wouldn't necessarily have to put the money. It's just like working with a contractor to see how they want that relationship of the money ahead of time or not.

So it's not like a fully paid. there are programs that will get to that point, but this current program, the way it's set up is that direct-to-contract. Up to $8,000 for the 80%. And it's $4,000 for the mid-income. Yeah. Moderate income. So area median income, as I inquired, I understand now that it's based on the county.

It's sorted by county. It's not by zip code, right? So if your income level has to be 80 or 80% or less of that county you live in, that would qualify to be, right? So there is an income verification tool that you'll find in our incentive finder and also going to TechLink, California, that walks the consumer through and puts shows, you know, you'd put your paperwork in. So it's private, like the contractor doesn't see all that. All that they see is that you finish that process and that you are in-com qualified. You don't have to talk to the contractor about your income or anything like that. They just want to know that you've done that process before they start to quote.

And there is an official tool on the site to do that for the consumer. So that's the one part the consumer does. The contractor then sees that the consumer is qualified and then they can begin the process. Well, I'm going to ask you for the exact thing of step by step what a consumer can do to get the rebate benefit. But I'm also aware that when the first, the Hira first rolled out in California, it was first multi-family. And then the single-family rolled out November 12th. So multi-families are basically apartment buildings, duplex, triplex. Duplex and triplex would probably be considered single-family.

In the real-state world, commercial building starts with five or more. It's a full. It's just that it's like it's not a duplex. It's five or more residential units. And the housing has to be for income qualified resident as well. Right. So the land, the owner has to initiate that process.

So the owner of the buildings who have tenants who are qualified as low income can then apply for the benefit. Correct. Correct. So how about when somebody is renting a home, single family home and is qualified as low income, can the landlord apply for this? For the single family incentive, they could. And that is a conversation that we really would love to see happen more. There are resources that there are someone switches on how to have that conversation. But yes, you know, it could go either. the owner was interested in it and started that process or the tenant was like, hey, did you know that you can get this money? And if they are income qualified, and the owner, you know, the owner has to initiate that process with a contract. I see. I see. So the tenant is the qualifier. And then the landlord is the one that has to initiate this process. Yes, that's right. And for the multifamily, it's just at least 66%

very specific of occupied units at 80% AMI. I see. I see. Or moderate at 50% AMI. I see. All of that information is on our site and on the TechLink California site. I see. I see. Yeah. And how about like mobile homes? Like mobile home parks where

they're considered single family and they, the residents who live in the structure own the home, but they may not own the land itself, can they qualify? That I don't want to. Let me confirm that. I don't want to speak off the cuff of that. Okay. Okay.

So that's the gray areas. Like I am finding that there are some areas that's not very clear. you know, I had, like I said, I've been talking about this for two years now, right? And, you know, I'm saying, yes, homeowners, if you're, if you qualify, you can get rebates. So those are the kind of small areas that are starting to kind of come to my attention that I wanted to really to get clarified. And so if you, if you can find out for me, I would really appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I do recall someone looking this up and you're right. that's not completely totally specified. And I would say that like any, you know, the goal is to get heat pumps and decarbonize all residents within the state, right? And so as things roll out and as there's different communities or different places, I would anticipate, you know, some support for those types of homes. But I don't know if it's in this program.

Yeah. I see. I see. So let's go back to the process. Can you please walk me through for a homeowner, like myself, you know. Yeah. Say I am interested in taking advantage of this Hira program. What does one do from step one to get to the actual installment?

I'll definitely come to the switches on. You'll come to our homepage where on the homepage you'll see, you know, really quickly put your zip code in to find in. incentives in your area and you will see all of the incentives, including Hira, the information for that right at the top. We're still onboarding contractors into the system. So this is where people may have to wait a bit as contractors in certain zip codes become qualified to install.

But put your zip code in. You see the Hira rebate information. You'll get like a little page of information. It includes the links to getting income qualified product list. It talks about all of the details that we just described. It's quite detailed. So there is a lot of information there. And then you would say, yes, I want to do this.

Find a contractor who's qualified. And it would go into creating three quotes for you. So pop up businesses that are here qualified. That means they've gone through the tech training. And they've done the new additional Hira training. are fired of all contractors to do this work. These are licensed electricians and plumbers and HVAC installers. These are licensed, bedded, and also trained through tech in California to take advantage of these rebates. The contractor is the one that would apply for the rebate. So that's one thing

that you do to get the rebate. You do have to use a hero qualified contractor. You can't use your own contractor. You can't like find someone and do it later. They do need to be. in the Switches-on directory and be-hoo. So that's one thing that's a specific. Right. Now, so when someone goes to switches on page, which I have done and puts her zip code in, at one point can somebody verify

that they would qualify on the income base? Yeah, great question. Once you get into, you'll see here, there's a link in there that says income verification tool and you would click. It goes to another page, another web page and you would put all walk through.

I haven't quite walked through all the steps of that, but it does walk the consumer through their income verification documents that are required. It tells you what's needed to become income verified, qualified. You end up with a certification or some sort of like certificate that is completed that you share with the contractor. It doesn't show your income level,

it doesn't show any of the detail, but it shows the contractor you, use that specific tool. And that's currently on Tech Clean, California is the official tool. So there's a couple of official things that, like, specific things that a consumer has to do. So that's the main action of, like, work and paperwork that a consumer has to do is really get all that paperwork to get income qualified and verified.

I don't have how long it, that, it's pretty like on the spot, but it might take a consumer some time to gather. Right. So the forms that the documents are needed. So is it tax return or what do the homeowners have to have prepared? Well, let's just look at it. It's here on the Tech Clean California page. Are you seeing my screen?

Yes. Yes. You'll get a lot of the resources of all of the qualifications for your income. And right off the top, before you even have to put any documents in, you can, you know, put your county and I don't know, let's just make one up. This isn't me, but, you know, we'll just do it. So this is before you even have to do the paperwork, let's just check annual income. I see.

So in order to save the rebate, if I have a family of six in Fresno County, this is my maximum annual income for the low 80% AMI and this $4,000, this was how much you'd make for this household. So that's pretty. So then you go, oh, okay, cool. I do. So let me go in here and start the process. Like I said, they're only available through a tech thing, California enrolled contractor who's done the hero training.

And you know the folks who've done the hero training because they have a little badge in the finder. So it's very clear. And you can, you can see all that on switches on. So it looks like here are all the documents. We'll just go through this. I see. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, let's look, there we go.

There you go. Lots of different ways, lots of documents. Oh, this is a, this is a old, so this is not necessarily mean that people have to have all of these, but whatever that applies to them. Yeah. Yeah. The last 12 months. Yes. And all other forms of income.

So preparing to get the Hira for a consumer, this is what it would require is kind of going through this list, preparing your documents. Yeah. knowing your annual income and your household size, all that, and you would go through this process. There's quite a bit of options for you to put in that would qualify as paperwork to get you that qualification. I see. I see. And then, yeah, going back here, yeah.

So you'd create a, like anything, you can create a register account. It'll save where you are if you need to find something else to put in there. And then once you've completed this application and you want to get a. keep that in the insulation it's um well there's questions but you do get i do know you get like a final like certificate or like approval i see no notification that you share with your contractor i see i see so so you're saying that homeowners can they should go to this page first to to verify your income level or what you qualify for correct yep and you will find that right away in the statewide great little section.

And there's a link right here. I see. And so qualification link. Yeah. I see. So that would be the first step. Yeah. It's a little bit of paperwork.

But it is worth the time and money to do so because it's quite a bit of money. Yes, indeed. Then they do the qualification. And then the next step is it would come back to this page. Okay, I'm qualified or find a contractor. That's where you're going to put in. Let's just do. And we are going to do.

heat pump HVAC or any of these other projects that also could be part of it but and when I put in the zip code there you can see that there's tech qualified in this area I don't see any here qualified yet so that is where we are in the early stages of this program this I see I see I'll pay that definitely wrapping up these folks these these businesses here you know, it's a pretty quick training for them to get hero qualified and they likely are in the process of doing that. Right. Right. So then you have the ability to get in touch with all of these three.

We recommend three quotes. You know, just get your quotes. I see. These then get you off of the switches on and it's now you're asking for quotes from the contractors. and then begins the process that we're all used to of like, and you get to work with the contractor. I see. Rest assured that these are folks that have been in our system.

They're vetted. They know about heat pumps. They've been certified through tech. So that would be the process. So once someone verifies their income level for their qualification, they go to look for the contractors. And you are recommending to contact three contractors for three different quotes. And when the contractors receive your inquiry, you don't have to,

you don't have to share your any information about your finances, but you just, you just produce the certification of something that indicates your, your qualification level. That's right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And then you begin that process. And then there was a back and of yeah looking at the pricing seeing what you know what would work for you um once you're in the process of something the contractor will reserve funds so it's one thing to know if they may say it might take a couple months or a month or something going on if it's not an emergency but they'll reserve the funds they'll say that and that fund is held held for them so beginning the process early on is is good even if the project may take a month or two months.

So they have a process where they go in and go, yep, I have a brochure customer that's ready to do this. I'm going to hold these funds. And now we're going to begin the construction process. Now, so the contractors, are they capable of advising the customers, homeowners? If like, say, for instance, I'm specifically going through the Hira rebate and contacting the contractor. But if depending on where you are, there might be other incentives. that you can possibly stack like you can see here. So would they be able to advise you on that, the contractors thing?

Absolutely. And that is something that we communicate often with our contractors as to talk through stackability. We're working on some worksheets and more resources for consumers, which is on so they can just like have a little, little, just being aware of what to ask contractors just helps that conversation. because some, you know, you don't install age factor. Yeah.

So just giving folks back for that resource. But one place that both the contractor and the consumer can do their research is switches on. And then they will, they will see all the work. It's to the best benefit of the contractor to provide all that. Because it lowers the project cost for them. And so they, the ones that are aware of all these things and you switches on as a tool are, are qualified to talk about doing that. And they really enjoy doing that.

When you do a water meter, you may need to do some upgrades to your electrical system. Sometimes they're small, sometimes they're large. And then that's where the contractor can definitely help with the recommendations of like, this is the best way to move forward and to carbonize and electrify your house. You're going to do these things. And I happen to know there's rebates for that too. So it'll look at the ecosystem. That's why the backable of the hero is so important.

That's one of the best things about the rebate. Right. Now, I'm going to go into some difficult part of this whole thing. Because I am very aware, for instance, where I am living right now, as I told you, is considered remote and rural. And I actually personally went through this saga of replacing water heater earlier this year. And number one, I had to wait for three weeks to get the water heater delivered, the heat pump. And then number two, I had two contractors who came that I found from either switches on or rewiring America. And they list the heat pumps on their service. But when I call to say, I want to install heat pump, one of them out like, they, they're going to.

disweighted me. It's not, it doesn't work, blah, blah, you don't have enough space, whatever. And two of the second one who came said that because I am at a higher elevation, he said that heat pump won't work because it gets too cold. That's too bad. Yeah. I know. I know.

So, so, but I insisted in finding the right contractor, which I found I am very, very grateful for that. But I'm very aware that there are many trades people around, but a lot of them are very small private contractors who have been around for a long time. And they probably don't even know what heat pumps are, you know? And so I have reached out to the community, nonprofit community support organization to spread the world. to the tradespeople in this area so that they get to learn and because it could be a business opportunity for them, right? Absolutely. So how are you guys doing the training of contractors?

So how to really get those contractors on board? What is the effort that you are making? Starting now, going forward, we're absolutely ramping up outreach and contractor education, mainly to make sure that folks know that the businesses know that the changes are going to be regulations at some point to get ahead of it and be an industry leader in this work. And that message really does resonate as we're doing trainings. We've been working with a couple local business coalitions. We just did some work with the Sierra Business Council where the contractors there did talk about

yeah, people have this misconception. It won't work in cold climate. We have some videos on, switch is on on our YouTube channel that actually talk about that it does work. And so I think you just illustrated something that's so important, which is consumer education. Because you, you, it is a little extra work, but you did the right thing of like, I know that this, I want to push for this. And the more times that happens for a contractor, the light bulb does go off because then they're not ready for, then they're like, oh, wait, I want to make sure the next conversation I have, I am ready to talk to a consumer because those two other contractors lost your business,

right? Yeah. Like you didn't use them. So as we like to say here, that it is, it has been challenging. This is a new market transformation. Every six months, things get ramp up and more and more this information is out there. I've even seen so much change. So it is the hardest of it is right now.

And then the next few years, I have a lot of confidence at the consumer demand and the consumer questions and anyone who's listening here, right? Like asking those questions and not feeling intimidated, coming to the places like the Switch is on, other websites that have that resource to me like, no, I really want this product and I've heard about it. If it's not you as a contractor, I'm going to go to someone who is ready to install it.

We are definitely working to make sure that all of the contractors, we just did a huge change to our contractor finder on switches on and we actually will be monitoring folks even more closely to make sure that they are not the consumers don't go through that process of coming to switches on those contractors that have gone through tech clean california do know the benefit of installing a heat pump and the fact of the matter is your heating your home and cooling your home and heating your water are the two biggest loads to your electric bill they cost most in in your home. So this is an opportunity to, yes, decarbonize and do right for the environment

in our grid, but also for your energy usage. And the products are, there's more and more come in for sure. So contractor awareness, education, what you've done is like reaching with your nonprofits. I love that. I love local community. We're also working very closely with Tech Clean California next year and rolling out workforce and education to contractors. have a lot of those resources on our site. We have a lot of agencies working together on that very, very notion that it is a business opportunity. These are really good products. And also the awareness that sometimes it does take some additional training. I went to a contractor training. And, you know, these are in ingenious folks that are coming up with a different way to install

this and sharing that knowledge. It's not out of the box sometimes. And so in Tahoe or some other places they might have to come up with different like solutions for installing. And so they do have to retrain. And the contractors that were at the training I went to were really excited after they realized that this is really the forward of my business of how to do this. So unfortunate for you to go through it. Your story isn't the first time I've heard that. You're what we would call an early adopter. And the early adopters really have a space in pushing the market. And, you know, we're getting to that place of adoption where it's much, much more attention. Help with the federal money coming in.

Helps that our state of California is going to protect that federal money and make sure that we are still reaching our goals. But that's an important point that I want to get back to. But before I do that, I want to ask you, so here I rolled out finally in California, right? So how, what are you seeing out there? Like I know that I have I have at least three families that I'm tracking right now. I sent them to switches on and they put in their information and they haven't heard back.

Oh, okay. It's been it's been more than three weeks. Oh, wow. And I'm not saying that in the critical way, but I'm just kind of trying to understand what's happening, actually happening. because my biggest fear, well, my biggest concern before it rolled out, as I was anxiously waiting for this to roll out, I was like, are they really ready, like contractors ready out there? And especially where, you know, a remote and rural area where there's not a lot of qualified contractors available, it's probably harder, but that was the point, right, for this program of like having.

Having these appliances accessible to those people who are in the underserved area, you know, more likely low income and more likely not as educated, maybe, you know. Or needing like specific solutions for heating and cooling. Exactly. Exactly. So what are you seeing right now? Is it inundated? This is system inundated or are the contractors really getting a lot of inquiries? right away we saw, I think our web team told us like a 300% increase of contractors coming to our site. So that's why I know there's a pipeline of folks doing the training and getting on there. We're seeing that exponentially grow week by week. And California is a huge state, right? Like even we need more tech enrolled contractors.

Exactly. The process of going through and getting licensed in trade is a long process for that. So I would say in my conversations and we do have access to talking to all of our. our state agency partners, workforce development is the number one area of attention. It does make it that we have to wait for these contractors to get enrolled in your area. You know, I think having voices like yours where you're pushing that conversation, it does help. And it is like a little bit of like almost your own activism and project to get that to help, help the people that you are telling. to do this work. I've had the same conversation with my friends and then have had to help them

navigate it. And like I said, I have seen nothing but massive amounts of just attention being paid to more contractors meeting to be able to do this work and larger companies getting into the work and doing that so that they can they can look at it. But we're still in that growth to be quite honest. And the, um, here dollars being out there, you know, they'll be out there for a bit as the contractors are enrolling and doing it. But the interest is very high. It's been the steps of going through the process. Right.

Yeah. So that leads me to the question that I was going to get to you, that I have heard that people are rushing in to apply because they are afraid that the new administration is going to kill the bill. And I know that they won't be able to kill that bill entirely, but, you know, the chance of federal government allocating more funding for this particular, you know, programs, is it at risk?

And what is your take on that from where you stand? Well, first of all, if you can rush and you can find that contractor in your area and get her to reserve funds and get the project rolling, great, great for your project, great for your project, great for getting that incentive. So that's fine to do that, right? That's what we want to see. And I would say, you know, California has a $450 million of money coming from IRA to the state. You can look on the DOE's website of the states and all the pockets of money. And there is, there is attention being paid to it. It is a shift in administration when that happens,

policies and bills change. But money that's allocated to the state isn't, it's, can't be touched or changed from the federal government. This becomes a state implementation project, which that makes all of the states in this country responsible for helping their consumers and their residents, right? So I wouldn't worry about like the money that California has actively been allocated. I do know talking with the Energy Commission folks, what they have said to me is that they're actively working and coordinating with the Department of Energy. There is urgency to make sure that money is there.

So that is a number one. But currently the Hira incentives, as they are, those don't get pulled back. That money is there. So if you're rushing to do that and you want to get that and you can find a contractor, great. Yeah. Yeah. So my concern then, the next concern is like it sounds like it might take a month or longer for somebody to actually get system installed. So do you think that it's going to, I mean, if so many people rush into this,

is it possible that we could run out of the funding before all the people who sign up can get a program? And that does happen. The incentives do run out as we saw with Tech Clean California. I'm not to sugarcoat that at all. I think with the additional requirements of income, that does, that is why that we, was there to slow down the money watching out. So it goes to the right people and people get the time to do that. And it is taking a little time. You know, each week we get, you know, 100 more contractors who are qualified to install it. Again, you can't do this project without

a qualified contractor. So you do have to kind of wait for that part of it, unfortunately. I anticipate that rapidly increasing in the months to come. But that money, these incentives are there to like kickstart the conversation to get more people interested in it, get the contractors ready to do the business model. They're not there to be permanent, to be honest. So they do run out. They do run out. And so, yeah, that is how this would work even if the administration didn't change. People do try to watch. Yeah. I know the income qualification is such an important part of this and it has to go. That's why it is. really detailed, put the paper, it's just, you can't just wait your hand and go, I'm 80% AMI. Yeah.

Yeah. The, the detail in there. Right. To make a good project. Yeah. So basically, the sooner, the better that you get on the mind. Yeah. And remember, there's your, your utilities.

There are air quality districts. There's all sorts of other entities within California who will be amplifying and wrapping up all sorts of other programs and incentives doesn't quiet down. So there will be lots of opportunities that I'm aware of in the even years. So that doesn't help emergency installation when someone needs to get a water. Exactly. That's always there is folks to do really creative workarounds, doing loaner programs and the contractors who are really innovative in this space are coming up with ways to do measures to help folks. So I'm really exactly. by what I'm seeing of like once the contractors get involved, the ingenuity and the way that

they're thinking about this, like how can we do this installation properly? How can we do the right size for you right now? Right. Right. A good one would want to do. Yeah. So as soon as possible, yes. As soon as possible. I know here, I mean IRA is supposed to last for 10 years since the enactment. So it's supposed to go to 32, but it doesn't sound like the rebate programs may not last that long. We never know. There's money coming into California that are going to be different types of rebate programs. And some of them are just very different in how they'll be approaching the work. And there's all sorts of changes to our fossil fuel infrastructure in California that are exciting things to come.

And yes, there's some unknown happening, but I'm, you know, we've gotten through this before. We will again. Yeah. You know, this is just a benefit to so many businesses and money that I do feel like

people will speak out. Like I want the best product. I want in my home. And, you know, become protected just by the nature of, you know, consumer demand changes that. It'd be hard to take that away, right?

Yeah, yeah. Consumer demand. I do have a lot of confidence. I'm working. I'm definitely working on that. Oh, gosh, yeah. So I know that Tech Clean just announced that whole push on the heat pump. One of the families that I'm tracking on the, you know, who I recommend it here,

she went on switch on and she wasn't interested in a water heater or HVAC, but she wanted to get the heat pump dryer. clothes dryer and induction stove. And she said that it doesn't look like I can get it. So do you know if there is any like rollout schedule for different appliances? Oh, with Hira. Yes. The state of California's Hira incentives are focused on heat pumps.

That is the focus. But there are other incentives that may roll out that are like your local municipalities. I know for induction and dryers. but that's TBD. I'm not going to speak to what's coming with Hira. I believe that's part of the future state. So there'll be more. But right now it is only for heat pumps.

HVAC and water heater. Yeah. And the focus is, again, because those are the biggest hit to your. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Still, if somebody wants to have the induction and the heat pump dryer, there are some other incentives available.

Yeah. the water heater hasn't launched yet. It's coming up next. But the dryer and induction, you may have some local incentives. I know here in the territory of the utility I live in, they do have a discount. I also did some shopping where the utility had a discount. And then EPO added in another discount on top of it to buy an induction stove. So I would definitely use some research.

And if I feel really terrible that you have folks that are hearing back, so please send me their names. and I'd be happy to find out what's going on with their input. I know that you have advocated so strongly, and your word and trust has been with your community. So I want to make sure that, yeah, I can do some research. Oh, my gosh, I so appreciate that. Like I said, there are many people who could really use it, you know, and I really like it to be able to be the truth.

You know, what I mean? Yes. Yes. And also, like, one thing we say is, you know, we do talk with honesty about sometimes it isn't an easy process at first. It's getting easier and better as more and more contractors and consumers are board. We're in that like adoption, early adoption phase. And maybe we're not used to that phase of new things because it hasn't been this larger scale of.

Yeah. So it is it isn't something that we say is easy at first. That's definitely not a selling point. It is complex. And it is a big. very complex. Financial decision. Well, thank you so much, Anita.

Of course. Thank you. This is such a lively conversation and I have so much more that I want to talk to you about, but for this podcast interview, I thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for being such an advocate for all of our work and caring about. Thank you.

This was Izumi Tanaka with Home Green Homes Podcast. Until my next show. After the interview with Anita, I had a few more questions regarding Hira program. Here are some additional information. California State is launching the rebate program with one appliance at a time for Hira, mainly focusing on the heat pump systems. The first phase was for heat pump HVAC system, in which low-income households can get it installed for free,

Although the homeowners may have to cover a difference if the cost of installation exceeds $8,000. Qualified householders can apply if you live in a condo unit, 2 to 4 unit buildings, ADU, or junior ADU. If you live in a mobile home, you can apply as long as you own a foundation and not have access or license number. As we discussed, the application process may seem daunting at first, but the system will keep improving to make it easier. So the key is to get in line. Contact me if you have any questions or want to share your experience.

Thank you for listening.