Appliance Standards - Impacts on Gas Prices and Electrification

Learn about proposed appliance efficiency standard increases and how they might impact gas prices, heat pump adoption and energy bills.
Appliance efficiency standards aren’t something most of us think about very often, but they have helped to reduce our energy consumption and our energy bills enormously since standards first took effect in the 1970’s. Heat pumps have made significant energy saving improvements in that time, but energy efficiency standards for gas furnaces and water heaters have hardly changed in over 30 years. The Department of Energy is poised to update standards on these two home appliances and the new efficiency requirements could dramatically accelerate the use of heat pumps nationally.
New water heater standards could make heat pump water heaters the dominant water heating technology by the end of the decade (up from 2% today). The proposed new gas furnace standards would mean that replacing an old low efficiency furnace with a new high efficiency gas furnace would typically require costly venting upgrades. Switching to a heat pump would avoid those added costs and therefore make heat pumps an even more attractive option for millions of homes with aging gas furnaces.
These increased efficiency standards combined with the continuing phase out of fossil gas combustion through city and state electrification mandates and air quality regulations, are expected to increase fossil gas prices over the coming years. As more homes are electrified and leave the gas system, a new study from ACEEE that we will discuss in this webinar finds that average gas utility costs per customer can increase between 21% and 129%.
Join Electrify Now and the Advanced Water Heating Initiative as we explore these two important and interrelated topics of federal appliance standards and gas price increases. In this webinar we’ll discuss:
- What are the new proposed standards for water heaters and furnaces?
- When would they take effect?
- How will these standards help energy consumers save money?
- How will this help accelerate the adoption of heat pumps and heat pump water heaters?
- How will standards and other gas regulation policies affect the price of natural gas?
- How will electrification affect gas costs as customers leave the gas system?
Panelists:
Joanna Mauer leads the Appliance Standards Awareness Project’s technical advocacy in U.S. Department of Energy rulemakings for efficiency standards for residential appliances and commercial and industrial equipment. She joined ASAP in 2010. Prior to joining ASAP, Joanna worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Center for Integrative Environmental Research. Joanna earned a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University.
Steven Nadel has been ACEEE’s executive director since 2001. He has worked in the energy efficiency field for more than 30 years and has over 200 publications. His current research interests include utility-sector energy efficiency programs and policies; state, federal, and local energy and climate change policy; and appliance and equipment efficiency standards. Steve earned a master of science in energy management from the New York Institute of Technology and a master of arts in environmental studies and a bachelor of arts in government from Wesleyan University.

[@brianpurcell6971]

Good explanation of the challenges on Hydrogen around 44:20 -- what about Biofuels -- would they face the same challenges to the existing distribution/burners?

[@ElectrifyNowUSA]

@brianpurcell - biofuels would not require mods to distribution pipes and burners because the product is methane derived from non- fossil sources. They are expensive and in short supply, and also produce GHGs, so not a great solution, but can be thought of as appropriate for some applications. Capturing methane emissions from landfills, water treatment plants etc is a good idea and can often be used to generate electricity on-site. Bio fuels to pump into our homes for our stoves and heating is not realistic due to limited supply and very high costs.