Posted on 10/02/2023 6:37:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Biden administration announced on Friday new restrictions on gas-powered furnaces in order to curb carbon emissions and residential energy use.
According to the Department of Energy, these regulations will cut household utility costs by $1.5 billion annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"At the direction of Congress, DOE is continuing to review and finalize energy standards for household appliances, such as residential furnaces, to lower costs for working families by reducing energy use and slashing harmful pollutants in homes across the nation," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.
"Today’s measure, along with this Administration’s past and planned energy efficiency actions, underscores President Biden’s commitment to save Americans money and deliver healthier communities," she added.
These new regulations would go into effect in 2028 and would mandate furnaces to achieve an annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) of 95%.
This requires manufacturers, within six years, to only sell furnaces that convert at least 95% of fuel into heat. As of now, the market standard AFUE for a residential furnace is 80%.
"There are some really technical reasons why this is such a concerning rule," Richard Meyer, the vice president of energy markets, analysis and standards at the American Gas Association told Fox Digital. "It has to do with the ability for consumers to be in compliance with this new efficiency standard."
"They're going to have to, in many cases, install new equipment to exhaust gas out of their home. These higher efficiency units, or so-called condensing units — a lot of consumers have them in their home, but a lot of consumers don't. So, this rule would require additional retrofits for a lot of consumers," added Meyer. "And those retrofits can be extremely cost prohibitive."
Over the next year, according to Fox Digital, the Biden administration is also proceeding with rules that will impact dozens more appliances, "including pool pumps, battery chargers, ceiling fans and dehumidifiers."
“These new regulations would go into effect in 2028”
Which means they’re never going to happen. 🙄
“”It is not the governments business to “save citizens money” by regulating the kind of equipment that they choose to use.””
Well said but remember it’s not to save us money - it’s to save the country!!! How about cutting off all electricity/gas to homes for savings - we can always go back to kerosene lanterns for lighting, wood stoves for cooking and heating which will also heat our water for once a week bathing, blocks of ice for keeping our food cold - the list is endless. We need to see the “powers to be” cut back on everything before we make one single change...
What is the GOP doing to stop this? My guess is Nothing.
I can just see someone living on S.S. trying to work something like that into their budget. After having doing the retrofit, who’s to say it lives up to it’s claims? I have been told that replacing a furnace with one of the new “high-efficiency” units only meant that the new unit burned more efficiently,but actually produced less heat. Not what you would consider if getting a new furnace. Who wants to spend all that money, even if they actually had it, & end up with a unit that does the job worse than the old furnace?
We just got one of those ‘high efficiency’ gas furnaces.
It puts out less heat than our old ‘inefficient’ one..............
I used to own a house with a gas furnace. I had looked into getting a 90%+ efficient furnace — a couple of HVAC guys told me that I couldn’t do it because a 90%+ furnace burned too hot. I had a metal flue and a wood frame; I would have had to take out the metal flue and put in PVC which would have been very expensive.
Maybe they figured out how to make it put out less heat so that it wouldn’t set your house on fire? Are your gas bills any lower?
The gas bills went up because of rate increases, so it’s difficult to judge. But the gas company gives you a chart on the bill of this years usage vs last years at this same time and it shows less, but we had a fairly mild winter.............
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