Knowledge/Rebates and VEU/Can you claim STCs and VEECs on the same job?
Can you claim STCs and VEECs on the same job?
On heat pump hot water, yes. You can claim both STCs (small-scale technology certificates, the federal ones) and VEECs (Victorian energy efficiency certificates), and the law allows it on purpose. On residential solar PV or a battery, no. Claiming both there is an offence carrying penalty units. It depends on which products the federal scheme covers, so check first.
- Heat pump hot water
- Claim bothallowed on purpose
- Residential solar PV
- One onlyclaiming both is an offence
- Batteries
- One onlysame ban
- The rule
- reg 38(b)amended September 2025
What does the law actually say?
The Act says that if a job's already had a benefit under a "prescribed greenhouse gas scheme", you can't create a VEEC for it (section 20(6)). The regulations then list the federal small-scale renewable energy scheme, the one that pays STCs, as one of those schemes. But there's an exception for certain product categories. Water heaters are in it.
So the exception is narrow and it's deliberate. Heat pump hot water was always meant to be able to draw on both. Solar PV and batteries weren't.
Expensive
either
way
Getting it wrong costs you in both directions
Assume you can't claim both on hot water and you leave real money on the table on every heat pump job. Your quote ends up looking worse than the bloke who knows the rule.
Assume you can claim both on solar or a battery and you've created a certificate you weren't entitled to. That's an offence, not a paperwork fix.
One thing to watch
The rule that holds the exception, regulation 38(b), was itself changed in September 2025. The list of products inside the exception can change even when the main rule stays put. So an article written two years ago can sound sure of itself and still be wrong today.
Check the current regulation before you rely on it for a quote, and be sceptical of any source that doesn't tell you when it was last checked.
Quoting heat pump hot water?
The stacking question changes the number your customer sees, and the answer isn't the same for every product you might put in.
Kevin will talk through how the incentives land on the jobs you're quoting.
Who this is for: small and medium HVAC contractors in Victoria. If you're a homeowner after a rebate or a repair, you need a licensed contractor, not us, and yours can point you the right way.
Related
- How a VEEC is created, registered and actually soldOne certificate is one tonne of CO2 equivalent saved. The path from your install to a retailer handing it in, and why there's only a short list of buyers.
- The 2026 Act: what changes, and what isn't law yetNine big changes are coming, including a new name for VEECs. Only a handful started on 9 September 2026. The rest wait until the government switches them on.
- The 2025 Act that extended the scheme out to 2045The scheme isn't ending. Certificates can be created for jobs done before 1 January 2046, and four changes from 2025 are still catching contractors out.
- The 20 kW cap on residential multi-split, word for wordFrom 30 September 2026 a residential multi-split can only count 20 kW of capacity input. You can install bigger. You just don't earn any more for it.
Review date: 1 January 2027. Figures in this area change without much notice and this page carries some that will go stale. Every number above is dated and sourced so you can check it yourself. If you find something out of date here, tell us and we will fix it.