Texas plans new rebates for energy-efficient appliances
In addition to upgrading attic insulation and installing a radiant barrier, homeowners can save big by swapping out old, inefficient, appliances with new energy star approved appliance that require far less energy to operate.
Texas’ rebate plan for upgrading to energy efficient appliance last April was not exactly the success it was meant to be. The company hired to operate the rebate program was unprepared for the onslaught of applicants and couldn’t keep up. Their website and call centers we’re overloaded to the point that the majority of calls we’re dropped and the website crashed, leaving a lot of hopeful applicants disappointed. Luckily there are still funds available and the state is gearing up to try again. Here is an excerpt from a Dallas Morning News article about the rebate program.
The Dallas Morning News
8:46 AM CDT on Thursday, September 2, 2010
The state still has $10 million left over from April’s grueling attempt to give away $23 million in federal energy efficiency money to people who upgraded appliances.
Last time, the comptroller asked people to reserve rebates online or over the phone before buying the appliances. The website and call center became overloaded. Then, many of the lucky reservation winners didn’t even use the rebates.
So the comptroller’s office is going to keep it simple this time: Buy an appliance, mail in a rebate application. The comptroller will hire an outside company to dole out money until it runs out.
“We didn’t want to deal with another potential problem with reservation systems, and we also looked at what other states had done,” comptroller spokesman R.J. DeSilva said.
He said the state will offer rebates in December or January.
The money will go toward the same categories of appliances: refrigerators, air conditioners, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines, heat pumps and water heaters. You can’t give the old appliance away or sell it – the idea is to replace the old appliance with a more efficient model.
DeSilva said the company that operated the last rebate program that so infuriated applicants won’t get full payment for the service. He said the comptroller will pay Helgeson Enterprises Inc. $250,000 for running the website and call centers in April, rather than the full $876,500 in the contract.
A spokesman for Helgeson declined to comment.
DeSilva said the comptroller will put out a request for bids to find a company to run the follow-up rebate giveaway.
The Helgeson call center dropped three-fourths of the calls from people seeking rebates in April. The call center was flooded when the website became overloaded. DeSilva said Helgeson didn’t have as much server capacity as it claimed to process Web applications.
learn more about the new rebate program at Texas Powerful Smart. Already have energy efficient appliances? Contact Mills to learn how we can lower energy bills by up to 40% by installing attic insulation and radiant barrier.
