Water Heater Efficiency Standards

Storage and instantaneous water heaters.

Water heater efficiency standards.

Doe has published a federal register final rule prescribing new energy conservation standards for consumer water heaters. As of april 16 2015 water heater manufacturers were to comply with new department of energy doe efficiency standards which required the use of new technologies to achieve efficiency gains. There are two main types of residential water heater technology. The federal energy management program femp organized information about femp designated and energy star qualified heating ventilating and air conditioning hvac and water heating products into tables that mirror american society of heating refrigerating and air conditioning engineers ashrae 90 1 2016 minimum efficiency requirement tables.

Doe has published a federal register notice request for information pertaining to energy conservation standards for residential water heaters. Gas water heater efficiency standards. 85fr30853 may 21 2020. Doe finalized the current standards for residential water heaters in april 2010 and they took effect in april 2015.

To help consumers in their water heater purchase decisions the department of energy has developed new industry standards. Electric water heater efficiency standards. Authority to undertake this effort was granted by congress and doe follows a four phase process when reviewing existing and developing new standards. Water heaters are the second highest source of energy usage in the home.

75 fr 20112 april 16 2010. Energy star certified water heaters are an easy choice for energy savings performance and reliability. In less than two years new water heater energy efficiency standards will be in effect starting in april 2015. With the 2015 standards residential water heaters were rated using energy factor ef and tested using appendix e to subpart b of 10 cfr 430.

83 fr 54883 november 1 2018. Due to inconsistent unreliable interpretations of high efficiency ef ratings across national brands all water heating manufactururers are now required to comply with the new doe testing procedures and rating standards. 60 75 and 100 gallon tank style water heaters will need to be replaced with tankless or hybrid units to achieve the required efficiency factor. Department of energy doe secretary steven chu announced in april of 2010 that the department had finalized higher energy efficiency standards for a key group of heating appliances that will together save consumers up to 10 billion and prevent the release of up to 164 million.

For gas water heaters 50 gallons or less there is not much change in the ef standards. Doe has published a federal register notice extending the comment period pertaining to standards for commercial water heaters 84 fr 449 january 29 2019. The efficiency requirements vary depending on the type of water heater and the rated storage volume.