Posted on 01/05/2025 3:18:34 AM PST by Libloather
The Biden administration is banning certain natural gas water heaters from the market as part of its climate change agenda, a move critics say will jack up energy costs for low-income and senior households.
The move in the final days of the administration will take non-condensing, natural gas-fired water heaters off the shelves by 2029 in a bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which climate change advocates and President Biden say cause global warming.
The new rules will require new tankless gas water heaters to use about 13% less energy than today’s least efficient tankless models.
The rules apply to both non-condensing and condensing gas water heaters, but the rules hike efficiency requirements to a threshold that only condensing models can meet, effectively banning the cheaper but less efficient non-condensing models, according to The Washington Free Beacon. Condensing technology wastes less heat.
Consumers will be forced to buy more expensive models or cheaper non-instantaneous storage tank water heaters, which are less efficient than the models being banned by the DOE.
Tankless technology is often used when space is at a premium, such as in apartment buildings and in smaller homes, Diana Furchtgott-Ruth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment, wrote in The Daily Signal.
For instance, Rinnai America is the only company that produces tankless water heaters in the United States. Its tankless, non-condensing natural gas water heater sells for about $1,000 at Home Depot, compared to $1,800 for a condensing 75-gallon tank.
The new rules were published by the Department of Energy (DOE) the day after Christmas, although the agency did not make a public announcement. Fox Business has reached out to the DOE for comment.
Matthew Agen, the American Gas Association’s chief counsel for energy, blasted the move, labeling it “deeply concerning and irresponsible.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
A $1800 water heater?
I changed one out in about 1998 or so-—COST me $65 for the unit, and neighbor installed it for me. HE did construction.
I had a 40 gallon gas water heater installed last summer. Total bill was 1,150 dollars. Not that long ago it was 350 dollars.
Who can rid me of these meddlesome priests (of the climate alarmist religion)???
1965
Average home sale price (in year sold): $21,500
Average home sale price (in 2024): $214,541
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-home-cost-were-born-180001011.html
These are tankless water heaters which are more expensive. A 40 gallon gas heater is $500 at Home Depot.
They are incredibly simple to install with flex tubing and just a couple hand tools. A reasonably handy DIY’er can do one with confidence.
This will be a good litmus test of whether Trump will follow through on his promises. This one should be reversed on day one.
The government has no authority to tell people what kind of water heater they can have.
Climate Change Advocates = Lobbyists
$$$$$$$$$
The bastards operate under the cover of darkness.
DOE Finalizes Efficiency Standards for Water Heaters to Save Americans Over $7 Billion on Household Utility Bills AnnuallyWho could possibly object to our wonderful, beneficent, all-caring government wanting to save us $7 billion?Finalized Residential Water Heater Standards Have Strong Industry and Stakeholder Support, Will Accelerate the Deployment of Heat Pump Water Heaters, and Represent Largest Energy Savings Action by the Appliance Standards Program in History
The DOE wrote "Strong Industry and Stakeholder Support." Yeah, so strong that they had to sneak the rule out the day after Christmas without a public announcement. And this article belies the "strong support" crap.
Of course, what they don't tell you is that we will have to spend $15 billion on capital expenditures to get that $7 billion operational cost savings.
If the ROI was there, people would be buying condensing water heaters on their own, just like they would be buying EVs on their own if there were no government $7,500 subsidy.
The bureaucratic communists can no longer make up laws and enforce them.
~~~~~
Where are the laws which would criminalize enforcement of these presidential edicts?
In 2029 Biden will be dead. This will never happen. Trump will simply stop it.
You see how these tools move goal posts? Natural gas is cleaner, move to it. Wait, you can’t use it, you have to use something else. What a pant load
I’m putting in a wood stove. Cast iron and soapstone.
The ban is a trivial bone thrown to envirowackos
The number of affected water heaters is trivial
I’m putting in a wood stove. Cast iron and soapstone.
DOGE needs to abolish the Department of Energy on day one.
Inflation is just taxation by another name.
My neighbor was a college professor. A nice guy despite being an admitted political radical.
As a college professor he could take year long sabbaticals. And he would use his time to go work in federal administrative agencies and write radical policies.
Multiply what he was doing by a few thousand of his fellow radical professors and it’s easy to see why normal America feels like an unaccountable government is making life worse. Because it is.
I believe you are correct. And you won’t have hot water if the power goes out.
I assume he was paid by Los Federales for writing anti-Free Market. Anti-capitalist regulations. It is a power trip for these sociopaths.
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