Frequently Asked Questions
Incentives
Our incentive programs are first come, first served. To check the remaining budget available, please see the TECH Clean California Budget Table, updated weekly. To read the budget report, please follow the instructions below:
1) Find the row where the Building Type, Funder Type, Product Type, and Territory Available match your project.
a) Identify your Building Type:
i) Identify if your project is Multifamily or Single-Family:
(1) Single-Family: The application for single-family incentives is initiated by the contractor, on behalf of the resident. The definition of a single-family building type can vary by incentive program; please be sure to confirm the building type with your contractor.
(2) Multifamily: The rebate application process for multifamily buildings is initiated by the property owner. The definition of a multifamily building can vary by incentive program; please be sure to confirm the definition with your contractor.
ii) Identify if your project is Market Rate or Equity:
(1) Market Rate: This incentive amount does not depend on the income level of residents.
(2) Equity, Low Income, or Low-and Moderate Income: This higher incentive amount does depend on the income level of residents. If you submitted income documentation in an income verification portal and were deemed eligible, your project is considered Equity, Low Income, or Low-and Moderate Income.
b) Identify your Funder Type:
i) This will generally be the name of your rebate discussed with your contractor.
c) Identify your Product Type:
i) Choose the row which matches what equipment your incentive application is for.
d) Identify your Territory Available:
i) If there is a regional breakdown, click on the link provided which will break down regions by county to find the correct region for your project.
2) In the row that describes your project, look at the following budget fields:
a) Percent Non-Reserved Budget Remaining describes what percent of the total budget is still available for rebate reservations to be approved.
b) Non-Reserved Budget Remaining ($) describes the exact dollar amount still available for rebate reservations to be approved.
To see which TECH Clean California incentives are available, please see the Incentives page on our website. To find all available incentives in your area, please use The Switch Is On’s Incentive Finder Tool, and enter your ZIP code.
As a general overview of the rebate process, you will start by finding a TECH Clean California-certified contractor. If you are a low- and moderate-income household, and there are higher incentive amounts available based on your income, you will then verify your income using your program’s income verification portal and give the verification code to your contractor. Your contractor will then submit a reservation request. Funding is reserved once the reservation request is approved by our team. After installation, your contractor submits the incentive application. Once approved and paid by our team, your contractor will pass the incentive to you as an instant discount on your invoice or a check within 30 days.
For a more in-depth guide, please see the instructions below:
1) Find a TECH Clean-certified contractor: Use the Switch Is On’s Contractor Finder Tool to find a TECH Clean California-certified contractor, required to be eligible for rebates. For HEEHRA rebates, choose a TECH Clean California-certified contractor with the HEEHRA badge.
a) Before choosing your contractor, we recommend that you:
i) Compare prices: Get at least three different quotes. Check the TECH Clean California Heat Pump Data Map to compare local project costs.
b) Confirm how you will receive the rebate: It may be passed through in one of two ways: 1) as an upfront discount applied to your bill, or 2) as a delayed payment sent to you via mail after your contractor receives the incentive from us (see Step 7 ).
2) Confirm your rebate amount: Some incentive programs offer higher rebate amounts for low- and moderate-income households.
a) To qualify for extra savings, you must complete the following steps:
i) You must verify your income: Submit required documentation for all adults in the household using your desired program’s income verification portal.
(1) If determined to be eligible, you will receive an income verification code and the rebate amount you are eligible for.
ii) You must provide the income verification code to your contractor: Your income verification code is required for your contractor to reserve funding for your project (see Step 4). Funding is only reserved after your reservation request (submitted by your contractor) is approved by our program team.
3) Sign required paperwork, including the contractor’s project contract and the TECH Clean California Terms and Conditions.
4) Your contractor reserves funding: Your contractor submits an incentive reservation request for your project, which our program team then reviews. Once it is approved, funding is officially reserved for your project.
5) Your contractor completes installation: After your funding is reserved, your contractor will complete your installation.
6) Your contractor submits the completed rebate application: After submitting the rebate application (or “claim”), it is then processed by our program team. For current information on processing timelines, please see the TECH Clean California Budget Table.
7) The incentive is sent to your contractor: Once the incentive application is approved, the rebate is sent to your contractor. You will receive it based on the passthrough method you chose with your contractor in Step 1. It will either be applied as an upfront discount on your bill or sent to you via mail within 30 days after your contractor receives the payment from our team.
For the quickest update on your incentive application, start by reaching out to your contractor.
If you have specific concerns or questions about your project’s status that your contractor cannot answer, please email the program team at tech.info@energy-solution.com. Please include the following details in your email so we can better assist you: Equipment type (heat pump water heater, heat pump HVAC, or other), TECH Clean California contractor name, and any other key project details.
If you applied for a HEEHRA rebate, you can check your rebate status anytime using the HEEHRA Rebate Status Tool. Enter the income verification code from your approval email to see your latest update.
Data and Reporting
Please navigate to the Download Data page to find the TECH Clean California working data sets. This will provide an anonymized dataset of the latest TECH Clean California installations, including equipment information, site descriptors, installation details, and total project cost. These data sets are updated monthly.
Each row of the TECH Clean California working data set describes a project in which a heat pump water heater (HPWH) or heat pump heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HP HVAC) system was installed. TECH Clean California only pays incentives for installations in existing homes (as opposed to new construction). Heat pump installations in existing buildings are also known as heat pump retrofit projects.
Please find the Data Dictionary and Read Me file for the TECH Clean California working data set you wish to use on the Download Data page in the Download Reference Documents section..
We use the Cal Enviroscreen 4.0 definition of a disadvantaged community, or DAC. Cal Enviroscreen defines a set of disadvantaged communities census tracts in California. If a TECH Clean California project occurred in one of these census tracts, it is considered to have happened in a disadvantaged community. In the TECH Clean California Working Datasets, each TECH Clean California project is labeled via the “Disadvantaged Community” column as either TRUE or FALSE. Visit the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)'s CalEnviroScreen page to learn more.
TECH Clean California has committed to directing both time and resources to supporting specifically underserved and disadvantaged communities throughout California. You can learn more about our plans and progress on the Equity Budget and Spending page.
The TECH Clean California incentive application instructs contractors to include all costs for equipment and installation related to the installed heat pump water heater or heat pump HVAC system, including material, labor, permitting, and other relevant costs. Therefore, Total Project Cost can include elements of the project beyond just the installation of the heat pump system itself—for example, electrical panel upgrades or smart thermostat installations.
It does not include any discount the customer receives as a result of the contractor receiving incentives, such as those from TECH Clean California. The Total Project Cost field captures what the contractor would have charged for the heat pump installation project in total, had they not received any incentives. TECH Clean California contractors are required to disclose the value of the incentive they expect to receive to the customer at the time of payment.
The TECH Clean California Working Data Set is typically opened in Microsoft Excel. Excel displays dates as integers as a default unless you change the cell format to Short Date. You can highlight whole columns and change the format of the column to be shown as a date by following these instructions.
Residential addresses and personal contact information for occupants of homes where TECH Clean California-funded projects occurred are considered personally identifiable information (PII) and cannot be shared publicly.
However, the TECH Clean California working data set includes several other data points to help users understand the location of each TECH Clean California-funded installation, including the county, utility service area, California climate zone, and disadvantaged community status.
We do not report the ZIP code in which each project occurred in the TECH Clean California working data set. We do this to avoid revealing information about the individuals or homes where TECH Clean California-funded equipment is installed. For example, in some rural ZIP codes there are very few residents, it would be possible to reidentify the home in which a TECH Clean California project happened simply by knowing the ZIP code and a few of the project details listed in the TECH Clean California working data set.
However, the TECH Clean California working data set includes several other data points to help users understand the location of each installation, including the county, utility service area, California climate zone, and disadvantaged community status.
To minimize the re-identification risk for homes in which TECH Clean California-funded equipment was installed, we only publish the name of the specific city in which a project occurred in the TECH Clean California working data set if at least 100 projects have occurred in that city.
Yes, we use county assessor data to determine the true age of homes where TECH Clean California-funded equipment was installed. This data is not available for every home and is more available for single-family homes than for multifamily residences. There are multiple data fields included in the TECH Clean California working data set_single-family data set that provide information about the home in which the equipment was installed, including Building Type, Home Square Footage, Year Built, Living Size (SqFt), Number of Bedrooms, and Panel Capacity (related to the electrical panel).
Many data validation steps are taken during the application process to ensure that useful and correct data is submitted by the contractor applying for a TECH Clean California incentive. However, some data cleaning inevitably must happen after the application process. The Data Dictionaries available for download alongside the TECH Clean California working data sets notes the quality assurance (QA) steps taken to remove erroneous data from each data field prior to publishing. Data points that are removed from the TECH Clean California working data sets are replaced with the text "Removed during QA."
Data sets on the website are updated once each month.
The TECH Clean California working data set does not include contractor names, but you can find the names of contractors who have installed a heat pump and received a TECH Clean California incentive in the Contractor Data page under the TECH Clean California Contractor Installations section.
The source data cannot be downloaded directly from the Tableau dashboards on the Heat Pump Data Visuals page, but these dashboards show the same data that is available in the TECH Clean California working data sets. Please go to the Download Data page to download these data sets.
Meter-Based Impacts
The TECH Clean California team uses the OpenEEMeter methodology, formerly known as CalTRACK. OpenEEMeter is an open-source codebase used to measure weather-normalized avoided energy use. More information is available at caltrack.org.
Energy usage before and after an intervention is modeled using the OpenEEmeter daily and hourly methods and disaggregated into temperature-dependent loads, baseload, and discretionary load. The OpenEEMEter daily model defines a building’s energy consumption based on a linear relationship with outdoor weather conditions and the interaction between the building’s temperature dependence, the occupancy status and the time of week. The OpenEEMEter methods are based on industry guidelines established by The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers ("ASHRAE") and the Uniform Methods Project: Chapter 8 - Whole Building Methods and meet all International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol ("IPMVP Option C") requirements. OpenEEMeter also specifies rigorous steps for data cleaning and organization and weather station selection, among other technical factors. A combination of daily and hourly models is used to disaggregate metered usage.
Disaggregated usage categories are defined as follows:
Temperature-dependent usage is energy consumption that increases or decreases with temperature, with warm-weather dependent usage defined as space cooling, and cool-weather-dependent usage defined as space heating.
Average baseload (always on) consumption is computed by first finding days where the CalTRACK daily model does not detect temperature-dependent usage. For these days hours are ranked from lowest to highest according to kWh usage. The average usage of hours ranked 2 - 4 are then averaged across the year and extrapolated to 8,760 hours. This would capture always-on end uses such as refrigeration and “vampire” loads from electronic devices in standby mode.
Discretionary usage is an estimate of a customer's non-temperature dependent, non-baseload usage that is independent of temperature. For example, cooking on an electric stove or using an electric clothes or hair dryer would be examples of discretionary usage.