If you’ve heard there’s money available for upgrading your HVAC system and you’re not sure where to start — you’re not alone. Most Nassau County homeowners know rebates exist. Fewer know how they actually work, which programs stack together, or what disqualifies an application before it’s even submitted.
The programs are real, the savings are real, and the frustration of navigating them is also very real. This guide walks through what PSEG Long Island offers in 2026, what changed from last year, and what you need to know before spending a dollar on new equipment.
What PSEG Energy Star Rebates Actually Cover in 2026
PSEG Long Island administers several rebate programs on behalf of the Long Island Power Authority. That distinction matters because when you’re searching for answers, you’ll see both names — PSEG is the operator, LIPA is the sponsor — and it can make the program landscape feel more complicated than it is.
The rebates fall into a few broad categories: heat pump installations, smart thermostats, system tune-ups, and heat pump water heaters. Each has its own eligibility rules, dollar amounts, and application process. Understanding which category applies to your situation is the first step — and it’s where most people get stuck.
Smart Thermostat Rebates: What Nassau County Homeowners Can Claim
The smart thermostat rebate is one of the most underused programs PSEG Long Island offers, and it’s also the most accessible. If you have central air and you install a qualifying ENERGY STAR certified smart thermostat, you can receive a rebate of $100 to $130 depending on the model. That’s money back on a device that typically costs between $150 and $250 retail.
There’s also a separate $85 rebate available through PSEG’s Connected Thermostat Program specifically for central air customers. These two rebates aren’t automatically combined — they operate through different program tracks, so it’s worth understanding both before you buy.
Before you purchase, the thermostat must appear on PSEG Long Island’s Qualified Product List at the time of purchase. Not every ENERGY STAR thermostat qualifies — the list is specific, and buying the wrong model means you’ve lost the rebate before you even applied. The rebate application must be submitted within 45 days of purchase, and the rebate amount cannot exceed 50% of what you actually paid at retail.
One more nuance that catches people off guard: if you buy the thermostat directly through the PSEG Marketplace, the rebate is applied at the point of purchase. That means you cannot also submit a separate mail-in or online rebate for the same device. It’s one or the other, not both.
For Nassau County homeowners in older homes — the kind of Cape Cods and ranch houses that define much of the Levittown-era housing stock across Hempstead, Wantagh, and Merrick — a smart thermostat is often the lowest-barrier upgrade available. It doesn’t require a new system, doesn’t involve ductwork, and the rebate makes the out-of-pocket cost minimal. It’s also a natural first step toward understanding how the broader rebate system works before committing to a larger project.
Heat Pump and Tune-Up Rebates: The Bigger Numbers Worth Understanding
For homeowners considering a full system upgrade, the heat pump rebates are where the real savings live. Under PSEG Long Island’s Home Comfort program, market-rate customers can receive between $500 and $1,000 per ton for qualifying air source heat pump installations. Total rebates are capped at 70% of project cost, with a maximum of $5,000 for market-rate households.
Income-qualified customers can receive significantly more. Households at or below 80% of the Area Median Income qualify for moderate-income-level rebates, and households at or below 60% AMI qualify for the low-income tier. The cap for income-qualified customers rises to $7,500 total. If you already receive SNAP, HEAP, TANF, or Supplemental Security Income, you automatically qualify for the highest tier without submitting additional income documentation — that’s a detail most people never hear until they ask.
There’s also a rebate available for existing systems that often gets overlooked entirely: $40 back on a central air conditioner tune-up, or $60 for a ducted heat pump tune-up. Systems five years old or older are eligible, and only one rebate per system is available within any five-year period. For a home in Hicksville or Massapequa with a system that’s been running since the mid-2010s, this is straightforward savings on maintenance you probably need to do anyway.
One requirement that surprises many homeowners: to claim heat pump rebates, you must use a PSEG Long Island participating contractor. This isn’t a formality — it’s a hard eligibility requirement. If you hire a contractor who isn’t on the approved list, the rebate application will be rejected regardless of the equipment installed or how efficient it is. It’s worth confirming contractor status before you sign anything.
For homeowners in Nassau County’s coastal communities like Long Beach or Oyster Bay, where humidity accelerates system wear and efficiency losses compound over time, the combination of a high-SEER heat pump and the available rebates makes the math on upgrading significantly more favorable than it was even two years ago.
PSEG Energy Efficiency Programs and NYSERDA: How They Work Together
PSEG Long Island’s rebate programs don’t exist in isolation. They connect to a broader set of state and federal programs — most notably NYSERDA’s EmPower+ program — and in some cases those programs can be used on the same project, which changes the total savings picture considerably.
Understanding which programs can stack and which ones can’t is genuinely useful information, and it’s something most homeowners don’t have access to until they’re already mid-project.
What Is NYSERDA EmPower+ and Who Qualifies in Nassau County?
EmPower+ is NYSERDA’s income-qualified home energy efficiency program. It covers weatherization work — insulation, air sealing, and related improvements — for eligible households, and it can run alongside a heat pump rebate on the same project. That means a qualifying homeowner could receive PSEG rebates on the heat pump installation itself while EmPower+ covers the building envelope work that makes the system run more efficiently.
The program has grown significantly. NYSERDA served roughly 7,000 households through EmPower+ in 2023. That number climbed to more than 22,000 households per year in both 2024 and 2025, driven by new federal Inflation Reduction Act funding and increased state budget allocations. For 2026, NYSERDA has allocated $120 million to the program — up from $110 million in 2025. The funding is there; the question is whether eligible homeowners know to apply.
Income eligibility is based on household size and gross income relative to the Area Median Income for Nassau County. Because Nassau County’s AMI is relatively high compared to other parts of New York, some households that assume they won’t qualify actually fall within the moderate-income tier. It’s worth running the numbers before assuming you’re out.
One important distinction: the IRA HEAR rebate — a separate federal program sometimes discussed alongside EmPower+ — cannot be combined with the PSEG Long Island heat pump rebate on the same installation. That’s a stacking rule that affects how you sequence and plan the project. Getting the order right matters.
Nassau County also includes NYSERDA-designated Disadvantaged Communities, where enhanced rebates apply. If your home falls within one of those designated areas, the rebate ceiling is higher than the standard market-rate cap — and that’s a local detail that rarely makes it into the general rebate guides you’ll find online.
What Changed in 2026: The Federal Tax Credit Expired — Here’s What That Means for You
The Section 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit — the federal tax credit that offered up to $2,000 for qualifying heat pump installations — expired on December 31, 2025. If you installed a system last year, you can still claim it on your 2025 tax return. For new installations in 2026, that credit is gone.
That’s real news, and it’s worth acknowledging directly. But the full picture is more nuanced than the headline suggests.
PSEG Long Island’s own rebate program grew for 2026. The state-level funding through NYSERDA expanded. And Rate Code 580 — a separate PSEG Long Island rate structure available to heat pump customers — provides ongoing electricity rate savings that compound over time, separate from any upfront rebate. For a household in Merrick or Bethpage running a heat pump through Long Island’s humid summers and cold winters, the long-term savings from Rate Code 580 alone can be meaningful.
The honest answer is that 2026 is still a good year to upgrade if your system is aging and the economics make sense. The federal credit was a bonus; the core rebate structure from PSEG and NYSERDA remains intact and in some cases improved. Homeowners who delayed because they were waiting to understand the landscape aren’t out of luck — they just need current information rather than last year’s numbers.
There’s also a geothermal path worth knowing about for homeowners with the right property conditions. PSEG Long Island’s ground source heat pump rebate runs $1,000 to $2,000 per ton depending on equipment efficiency, and it layers with a 30% federal tax credit and a 25% New York State income tax credit capped at $10,000. That’s the largest available incentive stack for Long Island homeowners — and it’s rarely discussed in the general rebate conversation.
How Nassau County Homeowners Can Make the Most of Available PSEG Rebates
The rebates are real. The savings are real. The complexity is also real — and that’s the part that causes most Nassau County homeowners to either delay or make a costly mistake before they fully understand the rules.
The single most important thing to know before starting any rebate-eligible project: confirm that the contractor you’re working with is a PSEG Long Island participating contractor, and confirm that the equipment you’re buying is on the Qualified Product List at the time of purchase. Those two requirements disqualify more applications than anything else.
If you want to talk through what’s available for your specific home — whether that’s a smart thermostat rebate, a tune-up, a heat pump upgrade, or a full system replacement — we’re happy to walk you through it. We at COOL BROS CORP are based right here in Lynbrook, we know the Nassau County programs inside and out, and we offer free estimates on new systems. No pressure, no jargon — just a straight conversation about what makes sense for your home.
