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Energy Star won’t recommend any gas appliances on its next ‘most efficient’ list
Fast Company ^ | October 1, 2021 | Kristin Toussaint

Posted on 10/19/2021 9:34:25 AM PDT by karpov

If you’re in the market for a new home appliance and you want that purchase to be as environmentally friendly as possible, you might look for options that feature a label from Energy Star, a symbol backed by the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy specifically to promote energy-efficient products.

Each year, Energy Star puts out a list of the Most Efficient appliances, those that the program says “save you money and protect the environment.” The list also features the “most efficient, pollution-reducing products.” Until now, that list might have included gas-powered appliances such as gas dryers, furnaces, and boilers—despite the fact that those items rely on polluting fossil fuels.

For its 2022 Energy Star Most Efficient list, though, the EPA announced that it will not include furnaces, boilers, or gas dryers, a move that was spurred by activism from environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Rewiring America, Sierra Club, and the Rocky Mountain Institute. For the first time, the list will include only electric appliances that can run on 100% clean energy. (The 2022 Most Efficient list isn’t out yet; the EPA just recently finalized its criteria for the products eligible for recognition, which meant the removal of gas dryers, furnaces, and boilers, according to a September 28 memo.)

“Water heaters, furnaces, and dryers, they produce a really significant amount of both greenhouse gas pollution and other kinds of air pollution,” says Denise Grab, manager of the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Carbon-Free Building team. (Gas stoves are also particularly polluting, but there is currently no Energy Star label for any residential ovens or ranges.) Across the country, fuel combustion from homes and businesses produced 590 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent—almost 9% of total U.S. greenhouse gas—in 2018 alone.

(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: energystar; epa; facebook; fastcompany; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; kristintoussaint; mediawingofthednc; nrdc; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; rewiringamerica; sierraclub
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Ignore Energy Star ratings if you did not already. To state the obvious, most electricity is still generated by burning hydrocarbons, about 60% according to https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3 .
1 posted on 10/19/2021 9:34:25 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

An electric water heater would result in a massively bigger utility bill than a gas heater.

This is not an unintended consequence.


2 posted on 10/19/2021 9:36:21 AM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: karpov

The problem with electrical appliances is the government can shut off the electricity at any time for any reason, leaving you without the ability to cook on your stove or heat your water. I would also mention gas furnaces, but they rely on electricity for the circuit boards and fans.


3 posted on 10/19/2021 9:37:20 AM PDT by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021.)
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To: karpov

The Great Reset is going to drive us from the technological 21st century back to the pre-industrial 15th Century. Dark Ages 2.0.


4 posted on 10/19/2021 9:40:42 AM PDT by Flick Lives (The future is a quiet world)
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To: karpov

Also onsite fuel usage for heating is more efficient than remote usage to produce electricity. Gas furnaces and clothes dryers are cheaper to run than electric ones. There is a lot of waste heat produced to boil water to run turbines, while in a furnace all heat produced is useful. There is no way to get 90% efficiency in a generator like you can with a gas furnace


5 posted on 10/19/2021 9:41:09 AM PDT by KarlInOhio ("Anti-fascist" is from the official name of the Berlin Wall: Anti-fascist Protection Barrier.)
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To: CatOwner

THEY can shut off whatever they like whenever they want. Now, if you buy a brand new Ford all electric pick up you can simply power your house with that. See how well that works after a storm that knocks you off grid for a few weeks. 😕


6 posted on 10/19/2021 9:41:40 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: karpov

Apparently some people are gullible enough to use Energy Star ratings. That gives me an idea. Let’s forge a Energy Star stickers with the highest possible rating and put them on wood stoves and coalfired furnaces.


7 posted on 10/19/2021 9:42:36 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA ("Goats are like mushrooms. Because if you shoot a duck, I'm afraid of toasters." - Joe Biden)
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To: Seruzawa
It is more efficient to turn natural gas directly into heat in your gas dryer, gas range, or gas boiler. It's a no brainer. And natural gas is clean energy.

It is time that these know-nothings stop pushing us around. Have you noticed how their whole scheme is to stack the free market deck? Their trashy products can't compete on their own merits so they have to rig the system against the consumer. How dare you!


8 posted on 10/19/2021 9:43:29 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: Flick Lives

Me, I love the smell of dung fires in the morning from the veranda of my mud hut. Least effected? Folks living in yurts in Mongolia.


9 posted on 10/19/2021 9:43:48 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: karpov

When everything becomes electric you can be shut out of using your own property by central government controllers either manipulating the software on your devices or just by turning the power off.


10 posted on 10/19/2021 9:45:13 AM PDT by WMarshal ("Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.")
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To: rktman

LOL!


11 posted on 10/19/2021 9:46:37 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them)
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To: CatOwner

Yep. And gas stoves are so polluting that most do not have an exhaust outside the home.


12 posted on 10/19/2021 9:46:57 AM PDT by WhoisAlanGreenspan?
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To: CatOwner

When we built our house, I put in nat gas water heater, cook top and heater. When we lost power in February due to the freeze, we had hot water and could cook, but no heat. The blower on the heater runs on electricity.


13 posted on 10/19/2021 9:47:03 AM PDT by Texas resident (Sucks to be named Brandon now)
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To: karpov

I have a number of Energy Star appliances.

They ALL suck.

If I see that designation on something anymore, it’s not a selling point.


14 posted on 10/19/2021 9:48:48 AM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: karpov

Let’s go Brandon!!!!!!!!


15 posted on 10/19/2021 9:49:28 AM PDT by lgjhn23 (Pray for America....)
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To: Texas resident

Same situation for us in Central Texas. I wonder if a power generator could run the electricity needed for the blower and electronics in a HVAC unit.


16 posted on 10/19/2021 9:52:00 AM PDT by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021.)
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To: CatOwner

Unless you have a natural gas well on your property they can shot off your gas too…

So from that perspective makes no difference about gas or electric.


17 posted on 10/19/2021 9:52:08 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: karpov

A friend of mine was able to buy a far large house than his income dictates due to some unusual circumstances. It has all electric heat. They can’t really afford to heat it so they freeze in winter.

In the meantime, my house is all gas except the dryer and that’s only because it came with the house and hasn’t needed to be replaced. We enjoy our temperatures.


18 posted on 10/19/2021 9:53:05 AM PDT by cyclotic (Live your life in such a way that they hate you as much as they hated Rush Limbaugh)
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To: WhoisAlanGreenspan?
And gas stoves are so polluting that most do not have an exhaust outside the home.

That seems to be against code. Every house we looked at in late 2018 had an fan exhaust for their stove tops, whether gas or electric.

19 posted on 10/19/2021 9:53:23 AM PDT by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021.)
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To: Flick Lives
The future US

The elite will still have their mansions and fly over us in their private jets.

20 posted on 10/19/2021 9:54:54 AM PDT by Pollard (PureBlood)
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