Selling energy and resilience work after the credits ended

What ended and when

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act replaced the Inflation Reduction Act’s 2032 end date for both homeowner credits with 31 December 2025. For 25C, which covered insulation, windows, doors, heat pumps and similar improvements, the property has to have been placed in service by that date. For 25D, which covered solar, batteries and geothermal, the expenditure has to have been made by that date, and the IRS counts an expenditure as made when the installation is completed, not when it is paid (IRS FAQs, IR-2025-86, 21 Aug 2025). A solar job paid for in December 2025 and finished in January 2026 gets nothing.

The state-run home energy rebate programmes created by the Inflation Reduction Act, HOMES and HEEHRA, may still be running in some states. We could not verify their status in 2026, so this page quotes no rebate figure. Check your state energy office before any rebate appears in a proposal.

What clients now want

AIA’s residential panel shows efficiency features losing momentum and resilience holding. In the second quarter of 2026, energy-efficient products such as triple glazing fell to a net +28% from +36%, solar to +23% from +29%, net-zero and super-insulated homes to +5% from +13%, tankless water heaters to +15% from +27% and smart thermostats as a product to +38% from +43% (AIA Home Design Trends Survey, Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026). Backup generators held at +52%, technology-friendly wiring with extra outlets and in-wall charging rose to +51% from +40%, indoor-air-quality products rose to +30% from +27%, and make-up air held at +36%.

These are net scores, the share of firms seeing a feature gain popularity minus the share seeing it lose, on a panel of hundreds of residential firms. They measure momentum, not how many homes have the feature. Solar at +23% still means more architects see interest rising than falling. It also means the gap narrowed by six points in a year, and that the client asking for it is rarer than the client asking for a generator.

Homeowner behaviour matches the panel. In 2025, 27% of renovating homeowners upgraded plumbing, 25% electrical, 22% heating and 21% cooling, with median spends of $6,000 on heating and $6,000 on cooling. 13% insulated, and the median insulation spend rose 51% to $2,000. Only 3% bought solar (Houzz, 1 May 2026, from a study of 20,358 users). People are replacing failed equipment and fixing uncomfortable rooms. They are not buying performance targets.

Electrification is led by equipment

The one energy trend with clear momentum is in the plant room. Heat pumps out-shipped gas warm-air furnaces in January, February and March 2026, with heat pump shipments up 16% in February and 9.8% in March, and January gas furnace shipments at 217,762, down 19.8%, according to AHRI data as reported by ACHR News (trade press, Feb and Mar 2026). Those are national equipment totals, not remodels, and we have not retrieved the months after March. In the kitchen, induction held as the top product on AIA’s panel at about +57%, down slightly from +59% (AIA HDTS Q1 2026 report, 5 Mar 2026).

Our reading: the client asks for a heat pump because the furnace failed, or for induction because they want it, and neither request is about net zero. The architect’s contribution is what makes that equipment work: the envelope that lets a heat pump be sized sensibly, the electrical capacity for induction and a heat pump together, and the make-up air a tight house with a big range hood needs. That is energy work, not sold as energy work.

Repositioning the work

Comfort

Cold rooms, draughts, overheating upstairs and noise are the problems clients name. Envelope work solves them and cuts energy use at the same time. Describe it in the client’s terms and put the energy saving second.

Operating cost

We publish no payback figure here because no source in our notes gives one. Ask for twelve months of utility bills before the proposal and model from those, present a range rather than a number, and put the assumptions in writing. A promise of payback is the sentence most likely to come back as a complaint.

Resilience

Backup power at a flat +52% is the single strongest energy-adjacent signal on the panel, with tech-ready wiring at +51% and indoor air quality at +30% (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026). A battery, a generator transfer switch, a sealed envelope that holds temperature through an outage, filtered make-up air and moisture control are a package a client will pay for after one bad week. Hurricane and tornado-resistant design cooled to +11% from +15% on the same panel, so resilience sells as keeping the house running, not as storm-proofing.

State and utility programmes

Programmes exist in many states and utilities, and their status changes. We have not verified any of them for 2026, so no programme is named here. Check the current page before quoting one, quote it with its date, and make confirming it the client’s responsibility in the proposal.

1. Ask what is uncomfortable about the house now, and when. Write down the rooms and the seasons.
2. Ask for twelve months of utility bills and the age of the heating, cooling and water heating plant.
3. Offer a paid assessment visit with a written note: envelope condition, electrical capacity, equipment age, and the two or three interventions that fix the named problems.
4. Price the design work by phase, with incentives as the client’s responsibility, using the clause above.
5. Report back in the client’s words: warmer, quieter, runs through an outage. Put the kilowatt-hours in an appendix.

What not to say

• “Net zero is trending.” On AIA’s panel it fell to +5% from +13% in the second quarter of 2026 (AIA HDTS Q3 2026 report, 26 Aug 2026).
• “You will get a federal credit.” For work completed after 31 December 2025, a homeowner will not (IRS FAQs, 21 Aug 2025).
• “It pays for itself in a few years.” Not without the client’s bills and a written range.
• “Everyone is going solar.” 3% of renovating homeowners bought solar in 2025 (Houzz, 1 May 2026).