Tax Credits
No matter where your electricity, natural gas and propane come from, you qualify for the Residential Energy Efficiency Tax Credit, when insulation is installed in your home. 10% of the project, $500 cap. Ends 12/31/2013. Note: If one have previously claimed the maximum ($1500) on the energy efficiency tax credit, the tax credit is unavailable.
Discounts/Instant Incentives
Ameren’s Home Energy Performance (HEP) Program
True Fact: Ameren IL offers $5,000 in instant incentives for insulation and air sealing to their
customers. For most people, this is
confusing: Why would my utility provider
offer me money to use less of their product? (BP and Amoco aren't paying my
mechanic to install a new, gas-sipping motor in my car...so what's the catch?) Some of our customers are initially skeptical of
this incentive program. We get it. Here's how this incentive program came to be.
In 2007, the State of Illinois
passed a law that required Ameren IL
to meet energy saving targets (see the news story here). Ameren
IL decided that the best way to accomplish
this was to improve the efficiency of existing homes they serve. This ActOnEnergy HEP incentive program was born. Here’s how you qualify:
If Ameren heats your home in winter (with either their
natural gas or their electric), you qualify for this money. How much money you qualify for depends on how
much insulation you currently have, how leaky your home is. and available incentives. Here's how you find that out:
You can call Ameren and pay $50 to have an energy advisor visually inspect your home and
they'll tell you if you need insulation and how much incentives you can access.
They will do a walk-through, use a thermal imaging camera to find weak
spots, and issue you a report on money-saving opportunities in your home including payback period. They may offer, and install, a low-flow
showerhead and CFL bulbs for free. Not a bad deal. We hear from our customers that the waiting period for this visit is one to four weeks.
And/Or, you can call Prairie Energy Solutions—acting as a Registered
Program Ally of the ActOnEnergy Efficiency Programs--and we’ll visually inspect your home,
conduct thermal imaging, tell you how much money in incentives you can access,
and then offer you an estimate for the cost of the project after all incentives
are deducted. The estimate is no-cost.
Here’s how much money you can access:
--$1400 for attic insulation
--$2400 for wall insulation (including crawlspaces and rim joists)
--$1200 for sealing air leaks
The work must be performed by a Registered Program Ally of
the ActOnEnergy Efficiency Programs.
(UPDATE EFFECTIVE 12/15/12: Due to tremendous success and homeowner adoption of this incentive program, Ameren has temporarily modified the program incentives and maximums. From 12/15/12 through 6/1/13, total project maximum is $2520.)
Benefits of this program:
--The incentives are instant; no mail-in rebates or tax
incentives--they're deducted directly from the invoice.
--No paperwork
--Immediate and lasting comfort in your home
--Immediate and lasting comfort in your home
--No income guidelines are associated with this incentive
--You save money every month on your utility bill--forever!
--You save money every month on your utility bill--forever!
We are saving people 35-60% on the cost of insulating their homes, and we're saving them 10-30% each month on utility costs! Click on the logo below to read more about this program on
Ameren’s ActOnEnergy website, and call us today to take advantage of this program!
More Resources
Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE)
The motherlode. Complete list of incentives for every program in the state of Illinois. Are you served by a rural electric cooperative here in Southern Illinois? There are many rebates for you. Are you thinking about solar power? There’s rebates for that, too. And here’s DSIRE’s list of federal incentives and rebates.
Energy Savvy
Terrific resource for all things energy efficiency, especially the page which allows you to search for incentives by zip code, town or county. This is a direct link to that page.
Tax Incentives Assistance Project (TIAP)
More federal incentives.
Prairie Energy Solutions helps our customers track down
every available incentive or rebate program possible in order to help
homeowners shorten the payback period on their investments. With all of the programs out there, the
paperwork and application process can become overwhelming. Call us today with questions about how we can
simplify the process of applying for any and all of these incentives.