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 ...
It is doable, but difficult.
I installed gas logs in March and will use that for heat next time ERCOT decided to cut our power off.
Recent mobile home (2002) I've been involved with has the same setup.
Unlike a gas furnace which has multiple safety checks to make sure the exhaust fan runs and even the pressure in the exhaust proves it before turning the gas on. I wouldn't be surprised if new gas stoves have fans linked to operation of burner, heck we're all dying of global warming and dishwashers and refrigerators have wireless internet.
We have TWO wood-burning stoves in our sunroom (the wife inherited them). One's a little potbelly stove...the other a full-size cook stove like below. Both are plant stands! Had to hire people to move the big one. I tell people "EVERYBODY needs two wood-burning stoves in a sunroom". Now...we may actually have to use it. Sheesh.
That is an awesome looking stove!
The different types of wood burn at different temps and speeds. I guess the same works when heating your house with wood, hardwood vs softwood.
After the last time we lost power in an ice storm, for three days, I got a gas stove. It can cook our meals without power and also keep the house adequately warm.
With a gas furnace, it would only take a moderate size generator to supply power to the furnace fans and such.
Next they will outlaw generators.
Makes me want to get a coal powered washing machine.
I already do. On appliances such as refrigerators, "Energy Star" means smaller motors that are over-torqued and break down faster. In other words, "Energy Star" means it's headed to a landfill sooner than the non-energy star appliances.
Lol...I crawled under the sunroom and installed an additional 6x6 post/concrete footing under the girder below that monster.
I don’t give a crap about their ratings. I just want my stuff cooled, washed and dried.
A 2000 watt gen set can run your gas furnace igniter and blower.
You need a substantially bigger one for central A/C.
Diesel water heater is okay, but diesel oven leaves a bit of a taste.
You now cannot trust Energy Star.
Who bought them off?
Unless you have a natural gas well on your property they can shot off your gas too…
“ Every house we looked at in late 2018 had an fan exhaust for their stove tops, whether gas or electric.”
Most of those fans aren’t actually plumbed to the outside, and simply recirculate filtered air.
Interesting. Ours is. Fan venting goes straight out the side of the house. You can feel the air on the outside of the house when the fan is on. House was built in 2019. Maybe it’s just the design of the houses here in Central Texas. The exhaust fan gets turned on whenever we use the gas stove top.
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