Maryland Insulation and Air Sealing Rebates: How the Whole-Home Programs Work

Published October 17, 2026 · Maryland Energy Rebates guides · Program details change; check current terms with your utility.

If you have a drafty older house in Maryland, insulation and air sealing are usually the first thing an energy auditor writes down. The catch is that the biggest incentives for this work do not come from a coupon or a mail-in form. They come through a whole-home program that starts with an assessment, continues with a participating contractor, and pays out based on the savings the work is expected to deliver. This guide walks through that path.

Why insulation and air sealing come first

ENERGY STAR describes sealing air leaks and adding insulation as the foundation of an efficient home: the simple fixes are weatherstripping doors and caulking around windows; the bigger jobs are sealing hidden leaks and topping up the attic. It comes before new equipment because a heat pump or furnace sized for a leaky house is bigger and works harder than one sized for a tight house, so most programs want the envelope fixed first.

For Maryland that matters doubly, because the state's climate asks a house to hold heat in winter and keep it out in summer. Most of Maryland falls in climate zone 4A on the ENERGY STAR map, and the recommended R-value table suggests bringing an uninsulated attic in that zone up to about R60, and an attic that already has three to four inches of insulation up to about R49. Western Garrett County is colder and sits in a higher zone; your auditor will confirm the target for your address.

How Maryland insulation rebates actually work

Under EmPOWER Maryland, the state's largest utilities fund efficiency programs through a charge that already appears on your bill, so there is no separate enrollment fee to join. For insulation and air sealing in an existing home, the route at BGE, Pepco and Delmarva Power is the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. Each utility's version follows the same shape:

• Step one is a Home Energy Assessment by a participating contractor. Pepco's program page describes it as a comprehensive evaluation of air sealing and insulation, heating and cooling, and the rest of the house, ending in a customized report. Delmarva Power's page is nearly identical. BGE's Home Performance page adds an income-based path with the audit at no additional cost for households that meet its limits.
• Step two is the report, which lists the recommended improvements and the incentives each may qualify for. The air sealing and insulation incentive is not a flat figure. Pepco's rebate table explains that it is based on the electric and gas savings the contractor models with utility-approved software, capped at a percentage of the total project cost. The same table notes a higher cap when the project also replaces a combustion furnace, boiler or water heater with a qualifying electric heat pump, and a separate duct-sealing incentive that is larger when done together with air sealing and insulation.
• Step three is the work, performed by the same participating contractor, who usually handles the incentive paperwork and applies it to your invoice. Work done outside the program, or before the assessment, generally does not qualify.

The figures and caps are revised as the utilities' plans are approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission, so check current terms with your utility before you sign anything.

What the contractor insulates and seals

The assessment report is organized around a few parts of the house, and it helps to know the vocabulary before the visit:

• Attic floor: the highest-return job in most Maryland homes. The contractor seals the gaps around light fixtures, plumbing stacks, chimneys and the attic hatch first, then blows in loose-fill or lays batts to the target R-value.
• Air sealing of the living space: caulk and foam at top plates, rim joists, duct penetrations and wherever a blower-door test shows leakage.
• Basement or crawl space walls and rim joists: often the second-biggest leak in a Maryland rowhouse or 1960s rambler, and a common cause of cold floors.
• Walls: dense-pack insulation blown into empty cavities, usually when siding is replaced.
• Ducts: sealing leaky ductwork in unconditioned spaces, which Pepco's table treats as its own measure.

Expect the contractor to test, not just look. A blower door measures leakage before and after, and a combustion-safety check confirms a tighter house still vents its furnace and water heater properly. If a contractor skips those tests, ask why.

Who may qualify

The rules are published per utility, but Pepco's eligibility page is typical: a Maryland residential customer with an active account, living in a single-family home, townhouse, row home or a building of one to four units that is a primary residence. Tenants may take part with written permission from the landlord, and the offer applies whichever electricity supplier you have chosen, because the program follows the delivery utility on your bill. A participating contractor must do both the assessment and the work. Our How to Qualify page explains how to find which utility serves your address.

If your income is limited

Households within the income limits have a second route that does not require paying for the work first. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development runs the EmPOWER Limited Income Energy Efficiency Program, which begins with an energy assessment and may provide insulation in the attic, floors and walls, hot-water improvements, lighting, heating-system tuning and limited health and safety repairs at no cost to the household. Families already enrolled in programs such as OHEP bill assistance or SNAP are treated as income-eligible automatically. BGE's limited-income page points customers to the same program. The income table is updated each year, so check current terms with DHCD.

The order of steps that protects the incentive

Most insulation incentives in Maryland are lost for one reason: the homeowner did the work first and asked about the rebate afterwards. Follow this order instead.

• Confirm your utility, then book the Home Energy Assessment through its program page or list of participating contractors.
• Read the report with safety items first, then air sealing and insulation, then equipment. Ask to see the modeled savings behind the insulation incentive.
• Get the incentive amount and cap in writing on the proposal before work starts.
• Keep the report, the before-and-after blower-door numbers and every invoice together; a later federal tax credit claim uses the same file.
• Schedule any heating or cooling upgrade after the envelope work, so the equipment is sized for the tighter house.

Our How to Apply page covers the paperwork in more detail, and the Utility Programs page links to each utility's current offers.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an energy audit to get an insulation rebate in Maryland?

For the whole-home programs at BGE, Pepco and Delmarva Power, yes: the Home Energy Assessment by a participating contractor is the first step, and the insulation and air sealing incentive is calculated from that assessment. The limited-income program also starts with an assessment, arranged by DHCD.

Can I insulate the attic myself and still get a rebate?

Not through the whole-home programs, which pay for work done by a participating contractor. A do-it-yourself attic job may still cut your bills; ENERGY STAR's seal and insulate pages are the starting point if you go that route.