Reminder – The Next Building Energy Codes and Standards Committee (BECS) Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, January 15-16, 2025 in Greenville, South Carolina at the Embassy Suites Greenville Downtown Hotel. For meeting registration click here: BECS Committee Meeting.
DOE Issues a Final Rule Pertaining to Standards for Gas-Fired Instantaneous Water Heaters (GIWH’s) – Bans Non-Condensing Technologies for Most GIWH’s.
Following up on last week’s BECS Committee Update report that provided a DOE prepublication Federal Register final rule pertaining to energy conservation standards for gas-fired instantaneous water heaters (GIWH’s) that finalizes a condensing only requirement for GIWH’s. Yesterday, the DOE published the Federal Register Notice with the Final Rule adopted amended standards for gas-fired instantaneous water heaters less than 2 gallon and greater than 50,000 Btu/hour, at an efficiency level that requires condensing technology. According to the notice, “DOE has determined that the amended standards for these products would result in significant conservation of energy and are technologically feasible and economically justified.” The Notice list “the effective date of this rule as March 11, 2025. Compliance with the amended standards established for gas[1]fired instantaneous water heaters in this final rule is required on and after December 26, 2029.” As reported last week, since a final rule has been issued, the only path to seek relief from the DOE regulation appears to be to seek a legal decision to halt or return the final rule back to DOE for a reanalysis of its justification for the condensing only requirement. We will be following any further efforts to seek a stay on the final rule specifically on the giwh’s .
DOE Provides Updated 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) Determination for Residential Buildings.
Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a “ determination that the updated model energy code for residential buildings, the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), will increase energy efficiency in residential buildings. The DOE technical analysis, performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), estimates that buildings meeting the 2024 IECC would result in national site energy savings of 7.80%, source energy savings of 6.80%, and energy cost savings of 6.60%. This action represents DOE’s determination for the 2024 IECC as directed under the Energy Conservation and Production Act (ECPA), as amended. (42 USC 6833). Supporting technical analysis, as well as previous model energy code determinations, are available at: www.energycodes.gov/determina
BECS Committee members are requested to monitor how states within their service territory are developing and responding to the federal requirement for evaluating the adoption of the 2024 Edition of the IECC particularly on non-mandatory provisions in the Appendix of this edition such as all-electric construction, electric ready, electric vehicle charging systems, etc. that would eliminate or discourage the use of natural gas in residential buildings. The most recent Scope and Intent provisions approved by the ICC Board of Directors for the IECC requires fuel neutrality and it is anticipated that these types of pro-electrification provisions either in the mandatory requirements or non-mandatory provisions will be removed form future editions of the IECC.
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.