The Alfalfa Electric Co-op Geothermal Rebate: $1,050 Per Ton in Garfield and Major County

I am Dave Hartzell. My shop is on Main Street in Kingfisher, and Garfield and Major are two of the seven counties I run daily service in. A lot of homes out there buy their power from Alfalfa Electric Cooperative, and AEC pays one of the strongest geothermal rebates in the state. Most people on that line have no idea it is there.

One thing before the numbers. The county line does not decide this. The electric bill does. Garfield and Major both have meters on more than one utility, so living in either county does not by itself put you on AEC. If the envelope in your mailbox says Alfalfa Electric Cooperative, this page is yours. If it says something else, I will point you at the program that is.

A seven to one spread is not an accident

Put those two numbers on a real house. Take a 4 ton system, a common size around here. At $1,050 per ton the ground source rebate comes to $4,200. At $150 per ton the air source rebate comes to $600. Same house, same tonnage, same co-op, seven times the money for going in the ground. That math is mine, run off AEC’s published per ton amounts, and your actual number gets confirmed with AEC before I put it in writing.

A utility does not hand out that kind of spread by accident. Ground source moves heat into and out of the earth instead of fighting the August air at its hottest and the January air at its coldest, so it flattens the demand peaks that cost a utility the most to serve. That is my read on it: a thumb on the scale, on purpose.

The rebate is paid per ton, so tonnage is not a detail to wave at. If the word is new to you, read what a ton of geothermal actually means. And here is the honest part: geothermal costs more up front than a conventional system. What it gives back is roughly 50% of the energy a house burns on heating and cooling, energy use and not your whole electric bill. The rebate is a big piece of what closes that up front gap, which is why I make sure you get it.

Who Alfalfa Electric Cooperative is

AEC is member owned, so the people on the lines own the utility. It was founded in 1937 and serves about 8,300 meters out of headquarters at 305 West 12th Street in Cherokee, Oklahoma 73728. Its power comes from WFEC. You can reach AEC at (580) 596-3333 or (888) 736-3837, and I would rather you hear a rebate confirmed straight from them than take a contractor’s word for it.

Here is how AEC describes the program in its own words:

“Alfalfa Electric Cooperative provides a service to our members by offsetting the cost of energy-efficient systems or eligible replacements through rebates.”

That is the co-op talking about its own members. I am the contractor, AEC is the utility, and those two roles stay separate all the way through a job.

The counties AEC covers, and the two that overlap mine

AEC’s territory runs across seven counties: Alfalfa, Grant, Garfield, Woods, Barber, Harper and Major. Barber County is in Kansas and there is a Harper County in both states, so that territory crosses the state line.

Two of them, Garfield and Major, sit inside the daily service area I run out of Kingfisher. Enid is in Garfield County, Fairview is in Major County, and I am in both regularly. That overlap is why this page exists.

Then the same warning again, because it is the mistake people make: a rebate follows the utility, not the county. Being in Garfield or Major County proves nothing on its own. Pull out your electric bill and it settles in one look.

What AEC requires, and what I handle

AEC sets its own requirements, and they include an inspection of the installed equipment and proof of purchase. The rest of it lives in AEC’s own policy and application documents, so confirm the requirements directly with AEC for your job. I am not going to paraphrase a utility’s rules on my website and have you find out at the end that I got a detail wrong.

What I will commit to is the work around them. The paperwork is my job, not yours. I fill out the application and I record the equipment information while the unit is still in front of me instead of after it is buttoned up. The one thing I will not do is promise you a figure AEC has not confirmed.

The water heater rebate nobody connects to geothermal

AEC rebates electric water heaters too, and for a geothermal customer that is real money: $200 on an electric water heater from 10 to 52 gallons, $250 on one over 52 gallons, and $100 to convert from gas to electric.

A geothermal heat pump can carry a desuperheater, which takes heat the system is already moving and sends it into your domestic hot water instead of dumping it into the ground. In cooling season that is heat you already paid for, put to work.

Now put the two together, and be precise about it. The desuperheater does not earn the water heater rebate. That one is paid on the water heater itself. But if your tank is old and getting replaced with the job, or it is gas and you were thinking about going electric anyway, then the heat pump rebate and the water heater rebate are two separate rebates on one project, and the desuperheater is what makes that electric tank cheap to run afterward. Confirm both with AEC. Sizing the hot water side is part of my geothermal energy savings audit.

Oklahoma has three rebate worlds and they do not overlap

Which utility bills you changes your geothermal rebate by thousands of dollars. Three worlds, one test:

• Electric cooperatives. AEC pays $1,050 per ton on ground source, confirmed with the co-op before I quote it. CKenergy Electric Cooperative pays $2,000 per ton up to a $24,000 cap inside its own territory, and it does not serve Kingfisher County.
• Municipal utilities. If your city or town sells you the power, your program is the OMPA WISE program, which pays up to $800 per cooling ton. That one is a ceiling, the level is elected town by town, and it requires a desuperheater or integrated water heater to qualify.
• Investor owned utilities. OG&E residential rebates are closed for 2026 and return in 2027.

The whole state picture is on Oklahoma geothermal rebates, and every one of them comes back to the same question: who sends the bill.

One more so nobody budgets around it. The Section 25D residential federal credit has expired, and the IRS states plainly that it is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. I am not a tax professional, take your own situation to yours, and the utility rebate is where the real money is in 2026.

I go anywhere in Oklahoma for geothermal

Daily service is seven counties, but geothermal is statewide work for me. I have run geothermal jobs in Kingfisher, Okarche, Hennessey, Watonga, Dover, Loyal, Cashion, Crescent, Piedmont, Edmond, Yukon, Mustang, El Reno, Guthrie, Enid, Geary, Okeene, Fairview, Thomas, Ames and Oklahoma City, and I have driven to Lawton, Broken Bow and Durant for customers who wanted geothermal. There is one shop, in Kingfisher, and I drive. That is a list of places I work, not a list of places with this rebate. The rebate depends on your utility, and I check it against your address.

Questions I get about the AEC rebate

How much is the Alfalfa Electric geothermal rebate in Garfield County Oklahoma?

AEC pays $1,050 per ton on a ground source heat pump and $150 per ton on an air source heat pump. Being in Garfield County is not the test, being on AEC is, because the county has meters on more than one utility. Bring me your electric bill and I will confirm the amount with AEC before it goes on your estimate. Call 405-375-4822.

Does Alfalfa Electric pay more for geothermal than for a regular heat pump?

Yes, and it is not close. Ground source is $1,050 per ton against $150 per ton for air source. On a 4 ton system that is $4,200 versus $600, seven times the money, confirmed with AEC before I quote it.

Does Alfalfa Electric rebate a water heater with a geothermal system in Oklahoma?

AEC rebates electric water heaters separately: $200 from 10 to 52 gallons, $250 over 52 gallons, and $100 to convert from gas to electric. It is paid on the tank, not on the desuperheater, so if the water heater is being replaced or converted during the job I check both with AEC.

What does AEC require before it pays a geothermal rebate?

AEC sets the requirements, and they include an inspection of the installed equipment and proof of purchase. The details sit in AEC’s own policy and application documents, so confirm them with the co-op at (580) 596-3333 for your job. I handle the application and the documentation on my end.

How much does a geothermal diagnostic cost in Enid Oklahoma?

$348 flat, any hour, weekday or after hours. That is a full performance check with a written report and a quote before I leave. An estimate on a new system is free.