What happened to HEAR in Colorado?
The federal IRA Section 25C tax credit ended December 31, 2025, and Colorado's HEAR single-family program is now closed for both Region 1 (the Front Range) and Region 2. Xcel Energy programs are the ones still paying on Denver-area insulation projects in 2026.
The mechanics: HEAR — the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate program, run by the Colorado Energy Office with federal IRA funds — was split into regions, and Region 1, the Front Range, exhausted its single-family funding first — Region 2 followed. What the Energy Office publishes is a submission cutoff per region, not a closure date: applications and project proposals submitted after a region's cutoff will not be reviewed and will be denied. The program dashboard now shows no funding remaining in both regions.
Region 1 is bigger than most coverage suggested: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, El Paso, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Teller, and Weld counties — fourteen in all, including every suburb this site serves. Region 2 is everything else in the state, and it is closed now too.
What does 'closed' actually mean for Front Range homeowners?
It means the money is gone, not paused. No waitlist exists. No grandfathering promise has been published. No reopening plan or timeline appears anywhere on the Colorado Energy Office's pages. That's not pessimism — it's simply everything the primary source says, and nothing it doesn't.
It also means a vetting test, free of charge: any contractor quoting HEAR money into a Front Range single-family project in mid-2026 is either working from a stale script or hoping you are. Either way, the contractor vetting guide exists for exactly that conversation.
Which income-qualified paths are still open?
HEAR's closure hit income-qualified households hardest, because HEAR was built for them — but two verified paths remain open in the Denver metro.
Xcel's income-qualified programs cover upgrade costs depending on eligibility, and eligibility is set out on Xcel's own program pages — worth checking even if you assume you would not qualify.
In one suburb, the City of Golden Rebate Match adds a city match — at a higher tier for owners earning 80% of Area Median Income or less — on projects that receive a matching Xcel rebate, available until city funds are exhausted. The City of Golden publishes the current match amounts on its own rebate page.
What's actually available instead?
The programs still paying for every Denver-metro homeowner in 2026 are Xcel's: the standard Insulation and Air Sealing Rebate (capped per measure, paid by check through a participating contractor), the Whole Home Efficiency Bonus adding a 25% bonus on all standard rebates when three measures land within two years of enrolling, and the Combo Bonus when insulation and air sealing precede a qualifying space-heating heat pump. Current amounts for all three are published on Xcel Energy's insulation and air-sealing rebate page.
Sixty seconds with the rebate eligibility checker maps your project against all of it — which is a better use of the HEAR-shaped hole in your plans than waiting on a program with no published path back.
What would reopening look like?
The honest answer: nobody knows, because the Colorado Energy Office hasn't published a reopening plan, a waitlist, or a timeline — and this page won't speculate where the primary source is silent. Anything you read promising a HEAR reopening date is not sourced from the program.
What a homeowner can usefully do is cheap: watch the Energy Office's home-energy-rebates page and its funding dashboard, which is where any change would appear first — and meanwhile run the project math on the programs that exist. A house that needed insulation when HEAR was open still needs it now, and the resources hub covers the rest of that decision.
Sources
What the data says
According to the Colorado Energy Office, “the HEAR single-family program is now closed for both Region 1 (the Front Range) and Region 2 (All Other Counties).”
According to Xcel Energy, the participating-contractor symbol marks a program that requires customers to use an Xcel Energy participating contractor to install the equipment or make the improvement.
According to ENERGY STAR's Seal and Insulate program, “EPA estimates that homeowners can save an average of 15% on heating and cooling costs (or an average of 11% on total energy costs) by air sealing their homes and adding insulation in attics, floors over crawl spaces and basements.”
Take the next step
Closed program, open question: what now?
The house that needed insulation when HEAR was open still needs it. The free in-home estimate prices your project against the programs that exist — the standard rebate, the 25% WHE Bonus where the sequencing fits, and the income-qualified track where it applies — so the closed door stops costing you the open ones.
Get a quote
Tell Us About Your Home
We've Got It. Here's What Happens Next.
We've got your info and are routing it to a local pro. When they call, here's what to look for in the quote you receive: (1) R-value target — the 2021 IECC sets a ceiling minimum of R-60 in Climate Zone 5 (Table R402.1.3); R-49 qualifies only where uncompressed insulation extends full-height over the top plate at the eaves. (2) Air sealing scope — insulation and air sealing work together; sealing the leaks first is what lets the insulation do its job. If a quote skips both, get another quote. The federal IRA Section 25C tax credit ended December 31, 2025, and Colorado's HEAR single-family program is now closed for both Region 1 (the Front Range) and Region 2. Xcel Energy programs are the ones still paying on Denver-area insulation projects in 2026.
Frequently asked
What do Colorado homeowners ask about HEAR?
Is there a HEAR waitlist I can join?
No. The Colorado Energy Office has published no waitlist for either region — its language is that applications submitted after a region's cutoff will not be reviewed and will be denied, full stop. A waitlist would appear on the Energy Office's own pages if one existed; as of the June 2026 verification behind this page, none does.
I applied before the deadline — am I grandfathered in?
Nothing published guarantees it either way. The Energy Office notes that applications are taking longer to review due to high demand, and its standing reminder is that no rebate is guaranteed until a formal reservation notice is issued for the project. If your application went in before your region's published cutoff, the only authoritative answer comes from checking your application status with the Colorado Energy Office directly — not from any contractor's assurance, and not from this page.
Which income-qualified programs are still open for Denver homeowners?
Two. Xcel's income-qualified programs are their own track, and Xcel sets out who qualifies on its own program pages. And in Golden specifically, the city matches Xcel-rebated insulation projects, at a higher tier for owners at or below 80% of Area Median Income, until city funds are exhausted. The City of Golden publishes the current match amounts on its own rebate page.
Does any of this matter if my home doesn't need insulation?
No — and that's worth saying plainly. If your home was built after 2010 and your bills are normal, insulation is rarely the right next purchase: the attic is probably short of the current R-60 minimum, but the payback is slow, and no rebate program, open or closed, changes that. The homeowners genuinely hurt by HEAR's closure are the pre-1990, climbing-bills households it was designed for — if that's you, the open programs above are worth the hour; if it isn't, close this tab with a clear conscience.
Is HEAR still open anywhere in Colorado?
Not for single-family homes. Region 2 — the Colorado counties outside the Front Range fourteen — was the last single-family door open, and it is closed now as well, with no funding showing on the state's dashboard for both regions. If you see HEAR described as 'open' in statewide coverage, check the date on the page: that reporting is out of date. The small-multifamily track is a separate program and never applied to single-family homes.
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