HPWH Exclusive with Whole Home If In Scope

HPWH Exclusive with Whole Home If In Scope

The rule

The standalone NJ Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) rebate of $750 is mutually exclusive with NJ Whole Home Energy Solutions when HPWH is included as a measure in the Whole Home scope of work.

• If HPWH is in the Whole Home scope: no separate $750 rebate. The HPWH measure is covered as part of the Whole Home incentive structure.
• If HPWH is a standalone install (no Whole Home project): the $750 standalone rebate applies normally.

Why this is conservative

This is a conservative default using the same logic as whole-home-equipment-exclusion: same-measure rebates don't stack. NJ utility documentation supports this for the HPWH rebate when HPWH appears in a Whole Home scope. What is not yet verified: whether a contractor can optionally exclude HPWH from the Whole Home scope of work to claim both the Whole Home incentive and the standalone $750 — i.e., whether scoping flexibility creates a stacking path.

Until that contractor scoping behavior is verified, the conservative default is to treat the two as mutually exclusive whenever HPWH is in scope.

How the agent should apply it

1. When the user's project includes a heat pump water heater AND Whole Home is the recommended track, do NOT include nj-water-heater-hp in the Whole Home track's programs array.
2. The standalone HPWH rebate (nj-water-heater-hp) should only appear as its own track when Whole Home is not the recommended path (e.g., HPWH-only project, or homeowner explicitly opts out of Whole Home scope).
3. Never write copy implying both apply when HPWH is in Whole Home scope: no "$7,500 + $750" stacking math.
4. If the user's contractor explicitly confirms HPWH is excluded from the Whole Home scope of work, this rule does not apply — but the agent should not assume that scoping flexibility on its own.

Caveat copy

No public-facing caveat needed in normal flow — agent simply doesn't surface both rebates together. If a user asks directly, agent says: "Heat pump water heater rebates and the Whole Home program cover the same measure when both apply, so they don't combine. Your contractor scopes Whole Home to maximize total value — verified during your free consultation."