Cash for appliances stimulus

The government's new cash for appliances rebate program is run state by state. Is your state participating yet?

Mon, Jan 25 2010 at 12:25 PM EST

Photo: Matt McGee/Flickr

Last year, the federal government ran the popular and widely debated "cash for clunkers program. Under the program, those who traded in gas-guzzling cars for cars that guzzled (slightly) less gas were given rebates.

This year, the federal government is targeting your old, energy-guzzling appliances. Unlike the "cash for clunkers" program that was run on the federal level, the money for the Cash for Appliances Stimulus program has been disbursed to each state, and the states will oversee the rebates. The money was released to each state at the end of November, and each state will release the money to its residents once a program is in place.

Because the programs are being run by state, I was having trouble finding one central source for information on each state until I got an e-mail from Sears.com. Sears, of course, stands to do quite well in the appliance sales area this year with this program, so they’ve created a page where you can easily find the information you're looking for.

You can sign up on their site to be e-mailed information on the Cash for Appliance program when it becomes available for your state. From this site, you can also link to the EnergyStar website that compiles all of the rebates for each state.

Some states also offer rebates that are separate from the Cash for Appliances rebates for recycling old appliances. This means you may be able to get a rebate when you buy the new appliance and a second rebate if your old appliance gets recycled properly.

The Department of Energy’s website lists which household appliances may be eligible for rebates.

Boilers
Central air conditioners
Clothes washers
Dishwashers
Freezers
Furnaces (oil and gas)
Heat pumps (air source and geothermal)
Refrigerators
Room air conditioners
Water heaters

I wonder why clothes washers are eligible, but not clothes dryers?

Do you have any old appliances that you’ve been thinking about replacing? Does this Cash for Appliances Stimulus program make it more likely that you will replace an appliance when the money from your state is released?

Addition: Our home blogger, Matt, did a post on another resource for rebate information. Head on over to his post A no-sweat home appliance rebate source for the link to a really helpful site.

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