NSW’s $15,000 Interest-Free Home Energy Loan Explained

If you own a home in NSW, there is now a way to put solar, a battery and a heat pump on it without paying a cent upfront — and without paying any interest. The NSW Government’s Home Energy Saver program lends eligible households up to $15,000 at 0% over up to 10 years. That works out to roughly $4.10 a day, and for most homes the power-bill savings cover the repayment. Below is exactly how it works, who qualifies, and how to stack it with the federal battery rebate.

The short version: this is a real interest-free loan, not a rebate you chase and not a buy-now-pay-later product with fees buried in the fine print. You can check your eligibility for the NSW loan here in about 60 seconds.

What is the NSW Home Energy Saver loan?

The Home Energy Saver is a NSW Government program designed to help households cut their power bills by making home-energy upgrades affordable. Instead of finding several thousand dollars upfront for solar and a battery, you borrow the cost interest-free and repay it gradually — ideally out of the money you’re no longer handing to the grid.

• Up to $15,000 borrowed for eligible upgrades.
• 0% interest — no interest, no ongoing fees, no balloon payment.
• Up to 10 years to repay, which lands around $4.10 a day on the full amount.
• $0 upfront — the install happens now, repayments start after.

The loan is funded by the NSW Government and delivered through its accredited finance providers, Brighte and Plenti. eHomes is an accredited installer under the program — we install your system and help you through the application, but the loan itself is provided and approved by the accredited provider, subject to their terms and a standard credit check.

How much does it actually cost per day?

Here is the repayment maths on the full loan, so there are no surprises. These are indicative figures — your exact repayment is set by the provider and confirmed before you sign.

For context, a NSW home that adds solar and a battery typically drops its grid spend by far more than $4 a day across a quarter once it stops buying at peak rates. That’s the whole idea: the upgrade pays for itself while you own it outright at the end.

What can you use the loan for?

The program covers the home-energy upgrades that genuinely move your bill. eHomes installs the four that make the biggest difference:

• Rooftop solar — generate through the day instead of buying at peak.
• A home battery — store your daytime solar and run the house on it at night. We fit Fox ESS batteries, which carry a 10-year warranty.
• Heat pump hot water — hot water for about a quarter of the running cost of an old electric tank.
• Reverse-cycle air conditioning — efficient heating and cooling that runs on your own solar.

The program also covers things like insulation and switchboard upgrades. The most common use, though, is the whole-home package: 6.6 kW solar plus a 21 kWh battery and a heat pump, done in one install.

Who is eligible?

The eligibility bar is deliberately wide — this is meant to reach ordinary households, not just high earners.

• You own a home in NSW — owner-occupiers and landlords both qualify.
• Your combined household taxable income is $210,000 or under.
• You pass a standard credit check with the accredited provider.
• You’re installing eligible upgrades through an accredited installer.

That income threshold means the large majority of NSW households are in. The fastest way to know for certain is to run the 60-second eligibility check — postcode and contact details is all it takes.

Stack it with the federal battery rebate

This is where it gets genuinely good. The NSW loan and the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program are separate schemes, so you use both. The rebate comes off the price first, then the loan covers what’s left at 0%.

On a 21 kWh battery the federal rebate is around $4,586 off, applied at the quote before any finance. So a whole-home package that might list higher comes down to a net cost that fits inside the $15,000 loan — which is exactly how these upgrades land at $0 upfront and around $4.10 a day. We break down every rebate on our rebates and finance page, and the battery rebate steps down again in 2027, so the current amount is the most generous it will be.

Funding is limited — and that part is real

We don’t do fake urgency, so here’s the honest version: the Home Energy Saver program is capped at around 32,000 NSW homes statewide. It’s a finite pool of government funding, and once it’s allocated the 0% loan closes to new applicants. There’s no penalty for moving early and no benefit to waiting — every week you hold off is another power bill at full price. If the loan is something you’d use, it’s worth checking your eligibility now rather than at the back of the queue.

Check your eligibility

If you’re a NSW homeowner, this is one of the few times a government program makes the upfront cost of going solar disappear entirely. Send your postcode and a recent power bill and we’ll confirm you qualify, map the right system for your home, apply the federal rebate, and set out your repayment in writing. Check your NSW loan eligibility, or grab a free quote and we’ll take it from there.