HOMES Act

Home Owner Managing Energy Savings Act of 2019 or the HOMES Act

This bill provides incentives for homeowners to invest in energy efficiency improvements.

Specifically, the Department of Energy (DOE) must establish the Home Energy Savings Retrofit Rebate Program. Under the program, DOE must provide rebates to reward homeowners for achieving home energy savings. Rebates may not exceed $10,000 per individual, or 50% of the qualified home energy efficiency expenditures paid or incurred by the homeowner.

DOE must develop a network of rebate aggregators or a national rebate aggregator that can facilitate the delivery of rebates to reimburse participating homeowners or contractors. In addition, DOE must develop guidelines for allowing utilities participating as rebate aggregators to count the energy savings from their participation toward state and local level energy saving targets.

This bill provides for the tax treatment of rebates, including an exclusion of such rebates from the taxable income of the homeowner.

DOE must also make grants to states, Native American tribes, and Alaska Natives for carrying the programs established by this bill, including the development of quality assurance programs to oversee the delivery of home efficiency retrofit programs.

Finally, DOE must establish a Residential Energy Efficiency Pay for Performance pilot program to encourage the use of measured energy savings, and financial payments for those energy savings, in the operation of residential energy efficiency programs.