How We Built a Free Energy Rebate Calculator for US Homeowners

How We Built a Free Energy Rebate Calculator for US Homeowners The Inflation Reduction Act and subsequent energy legislation created billions in rebate programs for US homeowners. But finding out what you actually qualify for? That remained frustratingly complex. We built Energy Rebate Calculator to solve this. The Problem Energy rebate programs in the US are a maze: Federal rebates (IRA, HOMES Act, HEEHR) State-level programs (50 states, each different) Utility company rebates (thousands of utilities) Income-based eligibility (AMI thresholds vary by county) A homeowner in Texas faces completely different incentives than one in California. Even within a state, your county's Area Median Income changes your eligibility. Architecture Decisions PHP 8.1, No Framework, No Database We chose a deliberately simple stack: PHP 8.1 with strict typing Static JSON data files for rebate programs File-based HTML caching (24h TTL) No database — zero maintenance overhead Why no database? The rebate data