EGN NEWS DESK
Sealed launched its software program final October in Southern California, serving to contractors entry rebates from the 3C-REN (Tri-County Regional Area Network) Single Family Home Energy Savings program.
These rebates are primarily based on the precise quantity of vitality financial savings households obtain within the 12 months after contractors weatherize and set up environment friendly gear of their houses. While this “measured-savings” strategy is Sealed’s specialty — the corporate initially constructed its consumer-retrofit enterprise round precisely estimating vitality financial savings — Sealed says it’s going to cater to all rebate sorts, together with reductions on gear and applications that concentrate on modeled vitality financial savings.
Contractors are more likely to see extra rebates of all stripes within the coming months as states begin up applications funded by the Inflation Reduction Act’s $4.3 billion HOMES program. (Another $4.5 billion will go to electrification and equipment state rebate applications for low- and moderate-income households.) Sealed Pro is presently accessible in California and New York, with plans to roll out to extra states, particularly these first to deploy IRA rebate funding.
Since Sealed Pro launched, the startup says it has helped contractors — the corporate declined to say what number of — get $1 million upfront for 3C-REN rebates. The 3C-REN program has been round since May 2022, however in simply the final 5 months, contractors utilizing Sealed Pro have claimed 46 % of this system’s whole payouts, in response to April Price, a manager of the 3C-REN program.
Making it simpler to use for a number of rebates at as soon as
It’s not simply Sealed tackling this problem. Other corporations have additionally just lately raised cash to expedite rebates. The startup Rock Rabbit closed a $3.1 million seed spherical this month, and California-based Eli Technologies introduced $6.8 million in seed funding in February. While neither is presently providing rebate {dollars} upfront like Sealed, each say they plan to take action sooner or later.
There’s “a number of creativity” in how rebate and different incentive applications are designed, making the panorama significantly troublesome to navigate, mentioned Rock Rabbit co-founder Aimee Bailey. It could be “fairly overwhelming — and past what common mom-and-pop installers are capable of actually do,” she famous. Rock Rabbit goals to offer a one-stop store the place contractors can discover rebates, tax credit and financing choices for home-decarbonization tasks.
Currently, the Palo Alto, California–primarily based firm is targeted on heat-pump incentive applications within the state, the place it’s processed greater than half a million {dollars} in rebate funds because it was based in 2023, Bailey mentioned.
Software instruments also can assist contractors shortly apply to a number of applications to mix incentives for a mission, like putting in a heat-pump water heater.
In some areas of the Golden State, three or 4 related applications may exist, mentioned Jeff Coleman, CEO of Eli Technologies. Instead of submitting functions for every one, Eli’s software program walks contractors by means of a single sequence of duties to seize the entire related mission particulars, reminiscent of documentation that the earlier water heater was powered by gasoline, the make and mannequin of the brand new gear, proof of buy, permits and images exhibiting, as an example, {that a} thermostatic mixing valve was put in. “And then we parse [that information] out into the completely different applications on the again finish,” Coleman mentioned.
Eli sometimes costs contractors a month-to-month price for its rebate-management software program that caps out at $500, along with a per-project price of $100 to $350. The software program is on the market in California and New York, and, like Sealed, Eli shall be intently following which states are first to roll out IRA rebate applications to assist native contractors.
Krause of Northern Pacific Power Systems is utilizing Eli’s software program to handle his firm’s rebate functions to California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program for heat-pump water heater and home-battery installations. The firm, which is each a paying buyer of and an investor in Eli, has used Eli’s software program to prescreen qualifying clients rather more shortly and cheaply, Krause mentioned, taking a number of the ache out of making use of to this system.
For now, Krause nonetheless depends on a completely different, extra analog third-party service to deal with functions for different rebate applications his firm participates in. But, he says, he’s excited concerning the wave of startups creating software program to make the method simpler. “I feel we want all of them” to make incentives simpler to entry. “To the extent contractors have a good expertise, electrification will go quicker.”
