Water heater standards not bold enough for efficiency advocates

The Energy Department has proposed new standards for home water heaters. The assessment from efficiency advocates: good, not great.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a coalition of companies, universities and nonprofits, contends the new standards are not tough enough to drive a shift to “next-generation” technologies, and thereby “leave huge potential energy savings on the table.”

The Energy Department estimates the new standards will save 2.6 quads of energy over 30 years. A quad is enough energy to meet the energy needs of about 5 million U.S. households for a year.

“But a standard that required more energy-efficient condensing gas and electric heat pump water heaters would increase savings more than six-fold, to nearly 17 quads, save consumers $48 billion and reduce [carbon dioxide] emissions by 965 metric tons,” according to ACEEE. 

DoE said it “concluded that the burdens of the higher efficiency levels would outweigh the benefits,” the proposed rule states.

See for yourself here.

Final rules are due in March.