AGA, APGA, NPGA and Rinnai America Corporation File a Request for a 30-day Extension on Responding to the DOE Request for Comments on a Notice of Data Availability (NODA) for Evaluating Minimum Efficiency Requirements Gas Instantaneous Water Heaters.

Recall that back on July 28, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (‘‘DOE’’) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (‘‘NOPR’’), in which DOE proposed amended energy conservation standards for consumer water heaters (‘‘July 2023 NOPR’’). That DOE proposal required that for the most popular sizes for gas instantaneous water heaters, less than 2 gallon and greater than 50,000 Btu/hour, an efficiency level that requires condensing technology. That level would eliminate the manufacturing of any instantaneous gas water heaters that are non-condensing types and that can be common vented with other non-condensing gas appliances such as gas furnaces. However in its May 6, 2024 Final Rule , DOE did not finalize a requirement for condensing only technology for gas instantaneous water heaters (giwh) by maintaining the current non-condensing minimum efficiency requirement.  For gas-fired instantaneous water heaters, DOE indicated that it was not finalizing standards in the May 2024 final rule, as it continued to consider comments submitted in response to earlier rulemaking stages before finalizing a decision on amended standards. On Tuesday, July 23^rd, DOE issued a Federal Register notice of data availability (NODA) pertaining to energy conservation standards for consumer water heaters, specifically gas-fired instantaneous water heaters.  In this NODA, DOE is updating portions of its analysis for gas instantaneous water heaters. DOE requested comments, data, and information regarding the updated analysis and will accept comments, data, and information regarding this NODA no later than August 22, 2024.  This past Wednesday,  August 7, 2024, AGA, the American Public Gas Association, the National Propane Gas Association and Rinnai America Corporation, filed the attached request for a 30 day extension to submit comments for a number of reasons including the complexity of the data in the NODA that does not provide an overview of what the DOE had initially provided and an explanation of  the rationale for the changes. As previously reported,  a preliminary review of the NODA, it appears that DOE is continuing to support a condensing only minimum efficiency requirement for giwh’s based on its analysis that includes condensing technology as an improvement in each of its trial stages for improving their efficiency.  We will report on the DOE response to request for extension when available.

AHRI Releases the June, 2024 Heating and Cooling Equipment Shipment Data.

For those interested in shipment trends for residential and commercial gas and electric storage type water heaters, residential gas and oil furnaces, electric heat pumps and air-conditioners, click here for the August 9, 2024 Air-Conditioning Heating, & Refrigeration (AHRI) Press Release that provides the May, 2024 U.S. Heating and Cooling Equipment Shipment Data. For previous monthly shipment releases and historical data, please click here . You may also wish to share this information with other groups or individuals within your organization that would be interested in this shipment data.