Smart Home Rewards

Austin Energy is testing an incentive to help multifamily communities be more energy efficient with smart thermostats and water heater leak detectors.

Participating communities receive $5 per year for every eligible device installed, up to $10 per residence. Residents earn a one-time $50 bill credit when they enroll in Smart Home Rewards, plus $25 every year they stay in the program.

What do these devices do?

A smart thermostat can help regulate a home’s temperature more efficiently and lets the user program and adjust settings from anywhere using the mobile app.

A smart water heater leak detector seamlessly controls the power to a home’s water heater, so it uses less energy. It will also help detect leaks that waste water and can drive up electricity usage.

How do Smart Home Rewards work?

Multifamily residents who take part in Smart Home Rewards help the community manage energy use when the need is highest. At peak times, Austin Energy will briefly adjust their smart thermostat up to 4 degrees to help conserve energy.

Austin Energy will never set a resident’s thermostat above 85° F or below 60° F, and residents will always be able to change their thermostat settings, if needed. To opt out of any individual event, a resident can simply readjust their thermostat at the wall or in the mobile app.

Participating residents may unenroll at any time using the Smart Device Opt Out form. After unenrolling, the resident will no longer receive Smart Home Rewards bill credits from Austin Energy.

Smart Home Rewards is currently a test program. Austin Energy may change the requirements, guidelines, rebate levels, or other terms to better meet the needs of our customers and the community.  

Residents

Residents at participating Smart Home Rewards communities will receive:

• A $50 one-time credit on their City of Austin Utilities bill when they enroll in Smart Home Rewards (see Eligibility tab for details). The credit will appear as an “Adjustment” line item within two billing cycles after enrollment and approval.
• An annual credit of $25 on their City of Austin Utilities each year they stay enrolled, to appear on the anniversary of their first credit. For example, if a resident receives their first credit in March, their annual incentive will appear in March of the following year.

Property Owners and Managers

Austin Energy will pay participating communities $5 annually for each smart device installed in apartment homes, up to $10 per residence.

Owner/Manager Incentive
	Smart Thermostat + Water Heater	Smart Thermostat Only
Annual Payout Per Residence	$10	$5

 

Residents

Smart Home Rewards is currently a test program. Incentives are only available to residents of participating multifamily communities that have installed qualifying devices in apartment homes. Residents should contact their apartment manager to see if their community is participating.

Property Owners and Managers

Participating communities must meet these criteria:

• Must be a permanent building with Austin Energy electricity service
• The same entity must own or manage all tenant units
• Should have approximately 50 tenant units or more
• Must comply with the City of Austin’s Energy Conservation Audit and Disclosure (ECAD) ordinance (a rebate is available to cover the cost of the required audit)  

Additionally, participating communities must have at least one of the following:

• Individual unit electric water heaters
• Individual unit electric-powered heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems 

Austin Energy will prioritize communities that serve low- and moderate-income households OR have an existing property-wide Wi-Fi signal that can provide communication for smart devices.

Properties listed with the City of Austin Code Department's Repeat Offender program may participate, pending approval from the Code Department.

Austin Energy may, at its sole discretion, waive one or more of these requirements on a case-by-case basis.

Applications from qualifying properties will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, and all rebates are conditioned on sufficient funds being available and budgeted for the test program.

Austin Energy and the City of Austin reserve the right to change the test program requirements, guidelines, rebate levels, or other terms at any time and at their sole discretion.