HOMES Act

Home Owner Managing Energy Savings Act of 2015 or the HOMES Act

The Department of Energy (DOE) must establish the Home Energy Savings Retrofit Rebate Program to provide rebates of up to $5,000 to reward homeowners for achieving home energy savings. Rebates may not exceed: (1) $10,000 per individual; or (2) 50% of the qualified home energy efficiency expenditures paid or incurred by the homeowner.

DOE must develop: (1) a network of rebate aggregators or a national rebate aggregator that can facilitate the delivery of rebates to reimburse participating homeowners or contractors, and (2) 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 make grants available for developing quality assurance programs to oversee the delivery of home efficiency retrofit programs, overseeing quality assurance plans, establishing and delivering financing pilots, coordinating with existing residential retrofit programs and infrastructure development to assist deployment of the Home Energy Savings Retrofit Rebate Program, and carrying out that Program.

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.