Appliance efficiency standards aren’t something most of us think about very often, but they have helped to reduce our energy consumption and our energy bills enormously since standards first took effect in the 1970’s. Heat pumps have made significant energy saving improvements in that time, but energy efficiency standards for gas furnaces and water heaters have hardly changed in over 30 years. The Department of Energy is poised to update standards on these two home appliances and the new efficiency requirements could dramatically accelerate the use of heat pumps nationally.

New water heater standards could make heat pump water heaters the dominant water heating technology by the end of the decade (up from 2% today). The proposed new gas furnace standards would mean that replacing an old low efficiency furnace with a new high efficiency gas furnace would typically require costly venting upgrades. Switching to a heat pump would avoid those added costs and therefore make heat pumps an even more attractive option for millions of homes with aging gas furnaces.

These increased efficiency standards combined with the continuing phase out of fossil gas combustion through city and state electrification mandates and air quality regulations, are expected to increase fossil gas prices over the coming years. As more homes are electrified and leave the gas system, a new study from ACEEE that we will discuss in this webinar finds that average gas utility costs per customer can increase between 21% and 129%.

Join Electrify Now and the Advanced Water Heating Initiative as we explore these two important and interrelated topics of federal appliance standards and gas price increases.

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1437FUahR_aDNOzzRPv6Og#/registration