It’s true that the cash-for-appliances program that began Monday in Minnesota ran out of money Tuesday morning. But don’t loose hope! Many utilities across the state are still offering their own rebates for new ENERGY STAR appliances, as well as incentives for trading in your old appliances!
Check to see if your utility has rebates for ENERGY STAR appliance purchases and/or related programs. Find out at DSIRE and on the Rebate/Bounty Factsheet.
Excerpts from the Star Tribune article, Appliance rebate cash gone in a flash by John Ewoldt.
Minnesotans, it seems, love a good cash rebate. State residents got more than $72 million in the Cash for Clunkers program for new cars last summer — $13.85 per resident, the third highest in the country.
Other states whose appliance rebate programs have already started are plodding through their allotments, which are based on population. Wisconsin’s program started Jan 1, and it has allocated only 20 percent of its $5.4 million. New York and Michigan have had to extend their programs to use up stimulus money. Michigan has $5.5 million left of its $9.5 million stash that opened up a month ago.
The exception to that is Iowa, which also started its program Monday and had jams similar to Minnesota’s early in the day. Iowa is already out of its allocated $2.8 million…
Anticipation in Minnesota ran high for the past several weeks, said Julie Warner of appliance chain Warners’ Stellian. “Hundreds of people called or came into the stores over the weekend doing their pre-shopping,” she said. “Five hundred people signed up for appliance stimulus e-mail alerts.”…
Each state designed its own program with money that was part of the stimulus package passed last year. Minnesota’s program includes rebates of $50 to $200 on dishwashers, refrigerators, washers and freezers, which are only available from the site and the toll-free number. Appliance dealers do not have rebates to give out and consumers do not need to have purchased appliances yet…
