Heating and cooling rebates in Western Australia
No state scheme, and no federal one either.
The short answer is that there is nothing — no state scheme and no federal fallback, the only jurisdiction in that position along with Tasmania and the Northern Territory. So this page does the other job instead: what a system actually costs to run in Perth, and the two local facts that change the answer here more than any rebate would have.
What you can claim in Western Australia
Nothing — and Western Australia is the only mainland state in that position
There is no Western Australian rebate for heating or cooling, and no federal one to fall back on: Small-scale Technology Certificates cover water heaters and solar panels, not air conditioners. Every other mainland state runs a scheme of some kind, so if you have read that a rebate exists and assumed it applies here, it does not.
That is the whole answer as at 5 September 2026. Installer sites that imply otherwise are usually describing the eastern states' certificate schemes, or the federal certificates for solar, which are a different thing.
It matters less here than it would elsewhere, for a reason specific to Perth: the cheapest useful thing you can do about summer in a dry climate is evaporative cooling, which runs at roughly a quarter of refrigerated cooling and has never needed a subsidy to make sense.
Why Western Australia is different
Western Australia has no state rebate for heating or cooling, and because there is no federal scheme either, that means there is nothing at all. Saying so plainly is more use than a page of hedging: if you have been searching for a WA air conditioning rebate and finding only installer pages that imply one exists, this is why.
What Western Australia does have is a genuinely different set of underlying economics. Synergy's standard residential plan has no controlled load or off-peak rate, so there is no cheap overnight window to shift load into. And Perth's climate is close to balanced — 545 heating degree days against 872 cooling — so a system needs to do both jobs.
The one strong recommendation for Western Australia is evaporative cooling. Perth's summer is dry, which is exactly the condition evaporative needs, and it runs at roughly a quarter of the cost of refrigerated cooling. It is the closest thing to free money available here, and it does not need a rebate.
What it costs to heat and cool a house here
A 160 m² house built before 2005, heated and cooled for a full year at Western Australia's reference rates. On these assumptions the cheapest option in Western Australia is single split system at about $419 a year — though read the conditions column, because it is not conditioning the same amount of house as the ones below it.
| System | Conditions | Per year | Installed | 10-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single split system | One main living area | $419 | $2,600 | $6,787 |
| Multi-split system | Most of the house | $949 | $8,500 | $17,985 |
| Ducted reverse cycle | The whole house | $1,369 | $15,500 | $29,190 |
| Ceiling fans | Cools only — you would still need something for winter. | |||
| Ducted evaporative cooling | Cools only — you would still need something for winter. | |||
| Electric panel or fan heater | Heats only — you would still need something for summer. | |||
| Gas space heater | Heats only — you would still need something for summer. | |||
| Ducted gas heating | Heats only — you would still need something for summer. |
A 160 m² pre-2005 house in Western Australia — 545 heating and 872 cooling degree days — at 33.3c/kWh, heating and cooling for a full year. Read the conditions column: the cheap options are partly cheap because they condition less of the house.
Your own house will differ. Put your floor area, insulation and rates into the heating and cooling cost calculator and every figure recalculates.
Every state, for comparison
| State or territory | Scheme | Indicative value | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victoria | Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) | $1,000–$3,500 | Co-payment rose 30/09/2026 |
| New South Wales | Energy Savings Scheme (ESS) | $200–$2,600 | — |
| Australian Capital Territory | Home Energy Support Program | $0–$2,500 | — |
| South Australia | Retailer Energy Productivity Scheme (REPS) | $300–$1,500 | — |
| Queensland | Climate Smart Energy Savers | $0–$1,000 | — |
| Western Australia | no state scheme | — | — |
| Tasmania | no state scheme | — | — |
| Northern Territory | no state scheme | — | — |
There is no federal rebate for heating or cooling. Small-scale Technology Certificates apply to water heaters and solar panels only, so unlike a hot water upgrade there is no national floor — what you get depends entirely on your state. Every figure is indicative and delivered as a discount by an accredited installer rather than claimed back. Last verified 5 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a WA rebate for air conditioning?
No — Western Australia is one of three jurisdictions with nothing available, state or federal. If you have read otherwise, you are likely looking at an eastern-states certificate scheme or the federal solar and hot-water certificates, neither of which extends to air conditioners here.
Should a Perth system be chosen for summer or winter?
Lean summer — 872 cooling degree days against 545 for heating. It is not as one-sided as Queensland's split, but cooling still carries more of the year's load.
What does a ducted system cost to run in Perth?
Roughly $1,369 a year for a 160 m² pre-2005 house at 33.3c per kilowatt hour. Worth knowing before spending on refrigerated ducted cooling, though: Perth's dry summer is exactly what evaporative cooling needs, and it runs at about a quarter of that cost. A multi-split covering less of the house comes to about $949.
Without a rebate, where does the money go furthest in WA?
Evaporative cooling, for most Perth homes — it needs no subsidy to make sense in a dry climate, unlike refrigerated systems everywhere else on this page. Insulation still helps too, cutting heating and cooling energy to 30% and 60% of a pre-2005 house's usage.