“You may be eligible to receive rebates from your state or territory for the purchase of new ENERGY STAR qualified appliances. These rebates are being funded with $300 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Under this program, eligible consumers can receive rebates to purchase new energy-efficient appliances when they replace used appliances.”
Each state is running their own program. California just started their Cash for Appliances program yesterday, and it’s much better than I thought it was. Some states have already ended their programs (sorry!).
For example, on a $500 front-loading washer that we were looking at, certain CA residents (by zip code) could get $300 back in rebates! That’s $200 from the state of California, $50 from WaterEnergySavings.com (PG&E + local water utility), and another $50 from PG&E. This is on top of the potential water and electricity savings that you’d would get from switching away from an old top-loading washer.
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If you’re going to do this, don’t wait too long. In my state, Ohio, the rebate money available for dishwashers was gone in one day and for the clothes wahers within a week. Good thing we only needed a new refrigerator.
Massachusetts’ rebate program was yesterday, phone lines were overwhelmed and the website crashed. All rebates were gone in 2 hours.
With California’s fiscal crisis, they can afford to pay you 40% of the cost of a new washing machine? Governments (and citizens) at all levels should learn the difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’.
Yeah, definitely don’t wait if you want to take advantage of one of these offers. In Illinois, the rebate money was gone 11 hours after the program started.
I got in on this in Alabama. Let’s see if the government can successfully run a mail-in-rebate system…
In Texas, you had to pre-register for the rebates, and the site the state had going was overwhenlmed. Many people who might have wanted to take advantage of the rebates, like me, never got through. This whole plan needs to be rethought.
China needs scrap metal agian, huh.
I fail to see how this will lead to job growth. What an fing waste of tax dollars. Aren’t most appliances manufactured abroad anyway?
“With California’s fiscal crisis, they can afford to pay you 40% of the cost of a new washing machine?”
From what I’ve heard most of the money is coming in from the federal government’s stimulus program. Now whether or not they can/should pay that…
I see the benefits of getting people to use things like front load washers. Given that water usage is cut nearly in half versus top load, it can make an impact. Especially with states starting fights over water rights, not to mention the recent droughts the southwest has experienced. Would we rather pay a few million to get people to use less water, or lose far more in farmland acres and drinking water.
The Washington State rebate program has been open since 3/15 and they’ve only managed to process $302,000 of their $5.6 mil budget. Not sure what the number of submissions are, but they keep a daily score online.
I’ll be getting $100 from them and another $100 back from my utility. I wish dishwashers were included.
Its kind of crazy that every state came up with their own list of eligible products. Unfortunately my state isn’t offering rebates on anything I’d need to get at all. We’re looking to buy a new dishwasher sometime soon and they aren’t on the list in our state.
Yes, we all know this part…………or the whole stimulus is questionable at best. My 4 year old son asked me today “Why do I have to pay for part of your washer in the future Daddy, I do not even have a job yet?”
What all the states should have done is collect all the rebates for a one month period and then divide all funds up evenly between all the people who bought the appliances during that time. That would eliminate people waiting in line, system crashes and confusion of whether or not you will get a rebate.
Yes, everyone will get a little less, but more people will get a rebate, which is fair.
We are all going to end up paying for this later on – or our kids will.
Erm, 200 for a washer? I am pretty sure you can only get $100 back for a washing machine. 200 for fridges, and 50 for certain room AC units. If you’ve found a 200 rebate for washing machines though, please let me know, since I am definitely in the market for a washing machine!
I am also concerned that since this is a mail in rebate system, how will we know when the money has run out? Will we just be SOL if we do it too late?
csdx, the post said California is supplying the money. But you’re right it’s probably mostly a pass through from the Federal government. As I said, governments at all levels need to make distinctions on what is required and nice to have. The federal government isn’t in any better shape than California, is it? This money buys relatively few new appliances and so will have little impact on on-going job growth. As for the other societal benefits, you could regulate that only low-water washers be sold, which would have a much bigger and longer lasting impact on water supplies. I realize this is a personal finance site, and jumping in on a rebate that someone is going to get anyway, is pretty good advice. But our problems in this country are because too many people think only of themselves.
I love how energy companies deal with these things. My fols’ power company did an efficiency program, six months later they got a letter. Power use was down so much they had to raise rates to meet budgets, so using less is good, but it may not save us. Private industry is as crooked as gov’t.
THATS A HELL OF A 4 YEAR OLD , GREG.
Good luck finding products that qualify for the Cash 4 Appliances program in California. No wonder there is still $27M left. If this program’s objective was to get consumers spending, it failed horribly. You can’t find products in stores nor online (online purchase doesn’t qualify btw). Maybe next time they’ll list products in a spreadsheet that actually exist.