Reminder to Mark Your Calendar: The BECS Committee to hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 from 11 am to 3 pm EST. Details for registration and the TEAMS meeting invite will be coming soon.
DOE Publishes SNOPR and Request for Comment by January 10, 2024 Pertaining to Standards for Consumer (Residential) Water Heaters.
On Wednesday, DOE published a Federal Register supplement notice of proposed rulemaking (SNOPR) pertaining to energy conservation standards for consumer water heaters. As a reminder, on July 28, 2023, DOE proposed amended standards for certain gas, electric and oil consumer (residential) water heaters, including circulating water heaters (note circulating water heaters have the advantage of providing hot water at the tap avoiding running the water until it becomes hot saving water) along with supporting definitions. In this SNOPR DOE proposes to amend the definition for circulating water heaters and clarify that circulating water heaters would be subject to the proposed energy conservation standards for storage-type water heaters. DOE requests comment on these proposed definitions. DOE will accept comments, data, and information regarding this SNOPR until January 10, 2024. Interested persons may submit comments identified by docket number EERE–2017–BT– STD-0019, by email ([email protected]), Federal eRulemaking portal (http://www.regulations.gov).Find product information for Consumer Water Heaters including current standards and test procedures, statutory authority, waivers, exceptions and contact information. What is curious about this Notice is that in it, DOE states the following:
“DOE has not identified any consumer water heaters currently available in the United States that qualify as circulating water heaters.” If any such models do exist, they would have similar cost and use profiles as gas-fired storage water heater or electric storage water heater market and would have very few shipments. In the absence of any models or current shipments, DOE concludes that the life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis results, national impact analysis (NIA) results, and other downstream analysis results presented in the July 2023 NOPR are unchanged and remain representative, for gas-fired, oil-fired, and electric storage water heaters, with the proposed amended definition for circulating water heaters, and the proposed standards for storage water heaters are applicable to circulating water heaters.
Besides the DOE comment that no residential circulating water heaters currently available, the comment on the LCC analysis is unchanged. it’s unclear how much the added cost of electrical use of a recirculating pump would impact the LCC. Finally, the extreme short comment period of 14 days is concerning and is not normal for any DOE rulemakings. BECS Committee members are requested to review the proposal and provide us with comments on the proposal and the extremely short comment period.
The 2024 Edition of the International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) Now Available
The 2024 Edition of the International Fuel Gas Code is now available for purchase (hard copies or digital formats) and can be ordered here. The site also provides online access to view the 2024 IFGC and outlines changes from the 2021 Edition. Note that the IFGC is jointly developed by AGA and the International Code Council, and the 2024 Edition is endorsed by the Plumbing-Heating -Cooling-Contractors (PHCC). AGA has a limited amount of complimentary hard copies of the 2024 and 2021 Editions of the IFGC for BECS Committee members. Please let us know if you want copies of either or both editions and we will send them out to you until our supply is depleted. Finally, this ICC Website provides an updated list of the state adoption of all of the ICC model codes that is a good resource when questions are raised about what ICC model code (Fuel Gas, Fire, Residential, Fire, etc.) is adopted in any area of the United States.
State Codes Activity Update.
Attached is a weekly feature of the “Friday Update” covering state code calendar activities as presented by the online utility “Fiscal Note,” which is sponsored by APGA and AGA Code and Standards. Please review the update and determine if there are state code activities that impact your service territory or organization.