Duke Energy HVAC rebates in Longwood: the free energy check comes first
Duke Energy will not pay a Home Energy Improvement rebate on an air conditioner that is already installed. A free Home Energy Check has to have been completed within the previous 24 months, and the work has to be one that check recommended. Replace first and apply afterwards and the claim is denied. In Longwood, where the median home was built in 1979, that order of operations is worth up to $1,000.
Do this in this order
Four steps, and only the first one is unusual
- Book the free Home Energy Check. It has to be on file, completed within the previous 24 months, before the equipment goes in. This is the step almost every homeowner skips and almost no contractor page mentions.
- Get quotes, and match them to what the check recommended. The rebate pays for the improvement the audit identified, not for whatever you decide to buy afterwards.
- Have it installed by a licensed, insured air conditioning contractor, on a permit. Duke states the system must be approved by a licensed city or county inspector — so the City of Longwood permit and the passed inspection are part of the rebate conditions, not optional paperwork.
- Apply. Rebate questions 800.254.8535; application support 877.364.9003, Monday–Friday 8–5.
Duke also states the whole home must be heated and cooled electrically to qualify.
Why this trips people up
An air conditioner usually fails in August, not in a planning meeting. The homeowner replaces it in two days because the house is 90°F, then finds out in September that a rebate existed and the window for it closed before the truck arrived.
If your system is over ten years old, book the Home Energy Check now — while it is still working. It is free, it lasts 24 months, and it is the only part of this that cannot be done in a hurry.
What Duke Energy publishes
The tier you land in depends on what you have now, not what you buy
The largest amounts go to homes replacing electric resistance strip heat with a heat pump. The smallest goes to replacing an air conditioner with an air conditioner. Same new equipment, very different cheque, decided by a fact about the air handler already in your attic.
| What you are replacing | Published amount | Efficiency required |
|---|---|---|
| Electric strip heat → heat pump | $1,000 | 16.8 SEER & 9.0 HSPF, or 16 SEER2 & 7.5 HSPF2 |
| Electric strip heat → heat pump | $600 | 16.0 SEER & 9.0 HSPF, or 15.2 SEER2 & 7.5 HSPF2 |
| Replacing an existing heat pump | $500 | 16 SEER & 9.0 HSPF, or 15.2 SEER2 & 7.5 HSPF2 |
| Replacing an existing air conditioner | $300 | 16 SEER, or 15.2 SEER2 |
Read this before you cite a number to anyone
The page these amounts come from is not scoped to a single state — its body references Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Florida. The Florida rebate portal confirms the program and the Home Energy Check prerequisite apply to Duke Energy Florida, but no Florida-scoped statement of these specific dollar figures was located. Present them as “Duke Energy publishes”, not “Duke Energy Florida pays”.
Why this argument is stronger in Longwood than most places
A 1979 median build year is a strip-heat argument
The Seminole County Property Appraiser's CAMA extract puts Longwood at 4,962 improved residential parcels, median year built 1979, with the middle half built between 1973 and 1987 and 66.5% built between 1970 and 1989. Only 13.2% dates from 2000 or later.
That is the era in which a Central Florida house was routinely built with a straight-cool air conditioner and electric resistance heat strips in the air handler for the handful of cold mornings a year. Some of those houses have since been converted to heat pumps; many have not, because a changeout replaces the equipment and quietly keeps the same heating arrangement.
Which tier you qualify for therefore depends on a piece of hardware you have probably never looked at. Do not guess it from a thermostat setting — the reliable check is the heat kit model number on the air handler's data plate, and any competent technician can read it during a service call.
The rest of the program
Duct testing pays without replacing anything
Duct test and repair
Up to $450 back, as an instant rebate. This is the one to know about in Longwood: two-thirds of the housing stock is 1970–89, the supply runs are flexible duct in an attic well over 100°F, and you do not have to buy new equipment to claim it.
Attic insulation
Up to $800 back, instant rebate. In a house whose air handler and entire duct system live in that attic, insulation is not a separate project from the HVAC — it is the same project.
Heat pump water heater
Up to $800 back. Duke's June 2025 release put the total program potential for a Florida single-family home at up to $3,850.
Figures as published in Duke Energy's news release of 9 June 2025 and verified against Duke Energy releases on 6 September 2026. An earlier Duke release dated 25 January 2024 listed HVAC replacement at up to $300 and duct testing at 50% of cost plus up to $200 per system, so these amounts have moved substantially and can move again. Re-check before you rely on them.
The efficiency floor is separate, and it is not optional
The rebate tiers above ask for more efficiency than the law does, but the law has a floor of its own. Florida sits in the DOE's hot-humid Southeast region, where a split-system central air conditioner under 45,000 Btu/h must be at least 14.3 SEER2 (13.8 SEER2 at 45,000 and above), against a 13.4 SEER2 national minimum. In the Southeast that standard is enforced at the date of installation, not manufacture — DOE states plainly that it is illegal for a contractor to install a product that does not meet the regional standard, and that there are no delays or special exemptions. Split-system heat pumps carry a 14.3 SEER2 / 7.5 HSPF2 minimum.
So the practical question on a Longwood quote is not whether the equipment is legal. It is how far above the floor it sits, and whether that gap is enough to reach the rebate tier you were counting on.
Sources
- Duke Energy, Home Energy Improvement — HVAC Replacement. https://www.duke-energy.com/home/products/home-energy-improvement/hvac-replacement
- Duke Energy Florida rebate application portal. https://www.dukeenergyrebates.com/florida/#/home
- Duke Energy news release, 9 June 2025 — expanded Florida home improvement rebates. https://news.duke-energy.com/releases/duke-energy-expands-home-improvement-rebate-program-to-help-florida-customers-save-energy-and-money-this-summer
- Seminole County Property Appraiser CAMA extract (Parcels.csv, dated 5 September 2026), tax district L1 — Longwood; improved residential parcels, DOR codes 01 and 04. https://www.scpafl.org/
- U.S. DOE, 2023 Central Air Conditioner Standards FAQ. https://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/pdfs/2023_CAC_Standards_FAQ_10-5-2022_Final.pdf
Figures are dated. Permit fees, rebate amounts and code cycles change — re-check the primary source before you rely on a number here.
Book the energy check first. Then reach out.
A contractor who checks the rebate tier before quoting gets you a job that actually qualifies, not just one that wins the sale. If your system is over ten years old and still running, this is the right week to get the free check on file.