An independent guide to a two-state rebate map

Why this exists

Two homeowners a mile apart, one in Norwich and one in Hanover, doing the identical insulation job, are dealing with two entirely different programs, two different sets of contractor credentials, two different rebate percentages and two different filing deadlines. Almost nothing written about home energy rebates accounts for that, because almost nothing is written for a place that straddles a state line the way the Upper Valley does.

Upper Valley Home Energy is an independent guide to what New Hampshire and Vermont actually pay for home energy work, written for the houses that are actually here — capes, colonials, farmhouses, 1970s ranches, and a great many attached ells that nobody has insulated since they were built.

What we do

• Tell you what you qualify for. Which program covers your address, what it pays in 2026, what the caps and deadlines are, and what has to happen first.
• Match you with a contractor who can actually claim it. NHSaves weatherization requires a participating contractor. Efficiency Vermont’s Home Performance rebate requires an Efficiency Excellence Network member. Hiring outside those networks is the single most common way homeowners here lose thousands of dollars.
• Stay out of the way after that. You deal with the contractor directly. We are not a general contractor, we do not mark up the work, and we do not sit in the middle of your project.

How we are paid

Contractors in our network pay us when an introduction turns into work. Homeowners pay nothing, ever, and are never obligated to accept an introduction or to hire anyone.

We say this plainly because it is the first question a careful person should ask about a free service, and because it shapes what we can and cannot be useful for. We have an interest in you doing work. We do not have an interest in which upgrade you do, or in which contractor does it — so when we tell you to air seal before you buy a heat pump, or that your best move this year is a $100 audit and nothing else, that advice is not costing us anything.

What we are not

We are also not tax advisers, not energy auditors, and not installers. When a question needs one of those, we will say so and point you to someone who is.

How we keep the numbers honest

Rebate amounts move — sometimes mid-year, as Efficiency Vermont’s Home Performance cap did when it stepped from $9,500 to $7,000 on July 1, 2026. Every figure on this site carries the date it was last checked, currently July 2026. Where a program has announced an end date or a funding limit, we say so rather than letting the number sit there looking permanent.

If you find something on this site that is out of date, tell us. We would genuinely rather hear it from you than have someone plan a project around a stale number.

Where we work

The Upper Valley, defined the way people who live here define it: the river towns and the hill towns behind them on both sides. Grafton and Sullivan counties in New Hampshire, Windsor and Orange counties in Vermont. The full list of towns is here.