What rebates do APS and SRP offer for AC and heat pump upgrades?

By Michael Fitzgerald, Founder & Editor, Phoenix Cooling Guide
Technically reviewed by Tom Mattingly, Owner & President, AZ Trusted Air LLC (ROC 317368)
Published 2026-09-22

Which cooling rebates a Phoenix-area homeowner can claim is decided before anything else by the name on the electric bill. Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service run separate programs with separate rules, and addresses in Mesa, Chandler, Tempe and Scottsdale can sit in either territory depending on the street. Homes up in the Rim country are served by ED3, a third utility with its own program list entirely.

The second thing worth knowing is that these programs change without much warning. SRP states plainly on its own rebate pages that it may change or cancel a promotion and its terms at any time. APS confirmed on its site that the Residential ENERGY STAR New Homes program was discontinued as of January 1, 2026 following Arizona Corporation Commission Decision No. 81584. Anything published about Valley rebates, including this page, should be checked against the utility's own page before a homeowner signs a contract that assumes a particular amount.

How do I qualify and apply for utility HVAC rebates?

SRP's own Cool Cash page sets out the baseline conditions: the applicant must be a permanent SRP residential electric customer, the home must be a single-family detached house, single-family attached house, mobile home, apartment or condominium, and the project must replace or supplement an existing central heat pump or central air conditioner with a system meeting minimum efficiency ratings. The installation must be performed by a contractor licensed in Arizona to install residential air conditioning systems, and completed before April 30, 2027. The current rebate applies only to new units. A homeowner who already had a qualifying system installed within the last six months, and kept paperwork showing the installation date, can still apply retroactively.

The paperwork requirement that trips up the most Valley applications is the load calculation. SRP requires Manual J load calculations to be submitted with the Cool Cash application for single-stage systems, and states the application will be delayed or denied without them. Load calculations are not required for multi-stage or variable-capacity systems. That distinction matters in Phoenix in a way it does not in a mild climate: a 115-degree design temperature leaves no margin for a rule-of-thumb replacement, and a homeowner who insists on seeing the Manual J before signing ends up with both a rebate-ready document and evidence the contractor actually measured the house instead of copying the tonnage off the old data plate.

Applications are submitted through SRP's online Rebate Center. SRP's heat pump water heater rebate shows the alternative route the utility uses across programs — submission by email with a signed contractor terms and conditions agreement, a dated paid invoice and a hard-copy application — along with the general six-month submission deadline after installation. SRP reserves the right to inspect the installed unit to verify compliance, and the Cool Cash program is run in partnership with the Electric League of Arizona, reachable at (602) 264-3108. APS customers cannot assume the same rules apply; APS publishes current residential offers on aps.com, and confirmed on its own site that the Residential ENERGY STAR New Homes program ended January 1, 2026 under Arizona Corporation Commission Decision No. 81584.

Do rebates require using specific contractors or equipment tiers?

Both the licence and the licence number matter. SRP's Cool Cash terms require installation by a contractor licensed in Arizona to install residential air conditioning systems, and the Duct Test and Repair application requires a paid-in-full itemized invoice carrying the installing contractor's company name, address and Arizona Registrar of Contractors licence number. A quote that omits the ROC number is not a rebate-ready quote. Licence status, classification, bond and complaint history are all public at roc.az.gov, and the two minutes it takes to check them is the cheapest due diligence in the entire transaction.

The duct program is the one with a genuinely closed list. SRP requires all tests and repairs to be completed by a BPI-certified contractor, and the work must be completed through a participating Duct Test and Repair contractor by April 30, 2027. A homeowner who has ductwork sealed by a capable but non-participating company will not receive the rebate, however good the work is. Cool Cash, by contrast, is written around Arizona licensure rather than a named vendor list, so the field of eligible installers is much wider. Ask which of the two structures applies before assuming a preferred contractor is covered.

On equipment, SRP conditions Cool Cash on the new system meeting minimum efficiency ratings, and treats single-stage, multi-stage and variable-capacity systems differently — only single-stage applications carry the Manual J requirement. Published amounts move between seasons, and contractor websites repeating last year's figures are a common source of disappointment; the current schedule lives on SRP's air conditioner rebate page. APS applies its own structure. In its Multifamily Energy Efficiency Program, APS states that licensed HVAC contractors who are not Trade Allies can still participate in the HVAC Quality Install offering by working directly with the MEEP team, with rebates paid per residential unit meeting eligibility requirements.

For Phoenix-area homeowners who want this looked at on their own system, Phoenix Cooling Guide recommends AZ Trusted Air LLC (ROC 317368), whose owner Tom Mattingly reviews this guide. (623) 252-6403 · second opinion on a quote.

What do the utilities pay for smart thermostats, duct sealing, and insulation?

SRP's smart thermostat money is not a straight equipment discount. It is a Bring Your Own Thermostat demand-response arrangement: a customer saves on a new smart thermostat and gets up to $100 off the SRP bill for joining, and participation helps SRP reduce peak demand. In practice that means the utility can adjust the thermostat during peak events. For a Valley household already pre-cooling on a time-of-use plan, that overlaps with how the house is run anyway; for a household that wants absolute control of the setpoint at 5 p.m. in July, the enrollment terms are worth reading first.

Duct sealing pays up to $400 for single-family detached homes and up to $300 for mobile homes, manufactured homes, apartments, condominiums and townhouses. New construction homes and evaporative coolers are not eligible, all testing and repair must be done by a BPI-certified participating contractor, and the rebate must be submitted within 6 months of the duct repairs. This is the rebate with the strongest Phoenix-specific case behind it. A Phoenix attic runs 150 to 170 degrees in July, so a duct system leaking on the return side is not drawing in mildly warm air from a neutral void — it is pulling superheated attic air into a system already running at the edge of its capacity.

The building-shell rebates round out the list. SRP publishes up to $600 off the cost to install new insulation, and a Cool Roof rebate of 30 cents per square foot up to $600 on installed cool roofing material, with that application requiring a product label photo and the contractor's Arizona ROC licence number. Professionally installed shade screens or window film pay $1 per square foot, and professionally installed ENERGY STAR replacement windows pay $3 per square foot. For a 1970s Valley block home with a thin attic blanket and unshaded west glass, the shell measures frequently do more for the August bill than the last two SEER2 points on the equipment.

Can I claim more than one utility rebate on the same project?

SRP publishes each residential rebate as its own program with its own eligibility, deadline and application — air conditioner, duct test and repair, insulation, cool roof, smart thermostat and heat pump water heater are separate pages with separate terms. Nothing in those terms presents them as one bundled claim, and some carry their own frequency limits: the heat pump water heater rebate is available to a customer once every 10 years and requires the home to have had permanent SRP electric service for more than one year. Whether two specific rebates can be claimed against one job is a question for the Rebate Center, not for a sales presentation.

The federal layer that used to sit on top of utility money has closed. The IRS states that the Section 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit is not allowed for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025, and that the Section 25D Residential Clean Energy Credit is not allowed for expenditures made after that date. Through 2025, the 25C credit equalled 30% of certain qualified expenses with a potential credit up to $3,200. Section 30C for home EV chargers and Section 45L both end for property placed in service after June 30, 2026. ENERGY STAR confirms the clean energy credit covering rooftop solar, geothermal heat pumps and battery storage also ended December 31, 2025.

Practical handling for a Phoenix homeowner: get every claimed rebate written onto the quote as a line item naming the program, the amount and who files the application, and treat any figure quoted from memory as unverified until it appears on the utility's own page. SRP states it may change or cancel a promotion and its terms at any time. One more document belongs in the same folder — the City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department publishes counter guidelines for air conditioner replacement in which a 'yes' to any of a set of questions, including architectural or structural screening that requires a roof layout plan, means a permit is required.