BECS Committee Meeting on January 11-12, 2023, at Sempra Headquarters in San Diego, CA.
As a reminder, the next AGA Building Energy Codes and Standards (BECS) Committee Meeting is scheduled for January 11-12, 2023, at Sempra Headquarters in San Diego, CA. There is no registration fee for this meeting, however registration is required. For meeting registration click here: BECS Committee Meeting .
AGA and APGA File Comments on the DOE Notification of Data Availability (NODA) and Request for Comment Pertaining to Energy Conservation Standards for Miscellaneous Gas Products.
On December 19th, AGA, and the American Public Gas Association (APGA) filed timely comments (attached) on the DOE Notification of Data Availability and Request for Comments pertaining to energy conservation standards for Miscellaneous Gas Products (MGP). The comments were in response to a November 17th DOE Federal Register notification of data availability (NODA) pertaining to energy conservation standards for MGPs. In it, DOE attempted to identify four groups of representative MGP’s as follows: 1. Indoor vented gas log sets, 2. Other indoor vented decorative hearth products (includes all other decorative hearth products that are not gas logs, including gas fireplaces, gas stoves, and gas fireplace inserts), 3. Outdoor decorative hearth products (which includes outdoor decorative fireplaces, fire pits, fire bowls, fire columns, and fire tables) and 4.Outdoor patio heaters (which includes pyramid-style patio torch heaters, radiant patio torch heaters, and infrared heaters). In addition, with DOE’s groups of representative MGP’s, the AGA/APGA comments noted the insufficient time of only 30 days for comments when the guidelines for the DOE standards development process call for 75 days. Note that AGA , APGA and the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) had requested an extension for comments as well as a request for a public meeting with DOE to clarify the proposal but, in a December 16th letter (attached), DOE denied the request. In addition to the request of DOE for additional time and having a public meeting, the AGA/APGA comments reiterated our previous comments on this proposal that minimum efficiency requirements for the MGP products listed in the DOE proposal are neither necessary nor appropriate since they would not provide significant energy savings or be economically justified as required by federal law. We will provide DOE’s next action on MGP’s when available.
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.