The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued final energy-saving standards for residential gas furnaces to curb the planet-warming emissions of these ubiquitous appliances by replacing polluting older models, as well as to lighten the bills of the consumers.
“These standards, which take effect in late 2028, require unheated gas furnaces and those used in mobile homes to achieve an annual fuel utilization efficiency of 95 percent, saving energy and improving residential heating,” the DOE said in a news release.
It expects adoption of the standards, over 30 years, to cut $24.8 billion from energy bills and avoid 332 million metric tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to the total annual emissions of 42 million homes or so of 34 percent of the country’s households. Those standards would also avoid 4.3 million metric tons of methane over the same period, equivalent to the combined annual emissions of 14 million homes or about 29 coal plants, the DOE said.
“As of 2022, residential gas furnaces account for approximately 19 percent of annual residential energy use in the United States,” the DOE noted.
Efficiency thresholds for residential gas furnaces were last updated about three decades ago. This version, published on November 19, 2007 and implemented in 2015, established an annual fuel utilization of 80 percent for unweathered gas furnaces and mobile home gas furnaces, 81 percent for furnaces air-conditioned and 82 percent for oil furnaces.
The modernized standards will “reduce waste by converting nearly all of the gas used into heat for living space,” the DOE said. “This standard can be easily achieved with modern condensing furnaces, which use secondary heat exchangers to capture excess heat from the furnace exhaust gases.”
The department has now issued proposed or final energy efficiency standards for 24 product categories, he said. Its Office of Building Technologies implements minimum energy saving standards for more than 60 categories of appliances and equipment. “As a result of these standards, American consumers saved $63 billion on their utility bills in 2015 alone,” the DOE says on its website. “By 2030, cumulative operating cost savings from all standards in place since 1987 will reach nearly $2 trillion. Products covered by the standards account for about 90 percent of household energy use, 60 % of the use of commercial buildings and 30% of the use of industrial energy”.
The DOE said in the press release: “Collectively, DOE’s past and planned energy efficiency actions under the Biden-Harris Administration will save Americans $570 billion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse by more than 2.4 billion metric tons accumulated over 30 years, supporting the President’s ambitious efforts to address the climate crisis.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement: “With direction from Congress, DOE continues to review and finalize energy standards for household appliances, such as residential furnaces, to lower costs for families workers by reducing energy use and reducing harmful pollutants in homes across the country.”
The advocacy coalition Environment America welcomed the adoption of the new standards, noting that “furnace efficiency standards have not been significantly updated since they were established by Congress in 1987.”
“DOE made a slight upgrade in 2007, but to an efficiency level that 99 percent of the models already achieved,” he said in a statement on his website.
“Heating is the largest utility cost in most homes, but we’ve still been installing many inefficient new models,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, in the communicated
Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, also said in the statement, “Oven technology advanced a long time ago, but standards did not keep up.”
To contact the author, please email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
