Experts Warn Biden Admin Water Heater Standards Will Mean Higher Prices, Less Choice

Water heaters are the latest appliance to be targeted by the Biden administration in its effort for consumer appliances to be more energy efficient in the name of climate change. 

As CBN News has reported, the administration has been pushing for months to propose new standards for Americans’ home appliances including clothes washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, room air conditioners, and gas stoves. 

The Department of Energy (DOE) claimed in a press release Friday that its new energy efficiency standards for water heaters will save consumers billions of dollars on energy and water bills every year. The new standards would go into effect in 2029. 

“The proposal would require the most common-sized electric water heaters to achieve efficiency gains with heat pump technology and gas-fired instantaneous water heaters to achieve efficiency gains through condensing technology,” the DOE release said. 

In contrast, non-condensing gas-fired water heaters are far cheaper and smaller, meaning they come with lower installation costs and are more accessible to Americans of all income levels, according to Fox News. 

“Today’s actions—together with our industry partners and stakeholders—improve outdated efficiency standards for common household appliances, which is essential to slashing utility bills for American families and cutting harmful carbon emissions,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in the press release. “This proposal reinforces the trajectory of consumer savings that forms the key pillar of Bidenomics and builds on the unprecedented actions already taken by this Administration to lower energy costs for working families across the nation.” 

Water heating is responsible for roughly 13% of both annual residential energy use and consumer utility costs, according to the DOE.

However, industry groups say the administration’s new efficiency regulations on water heaters would ban cheaper models, result in no consumer cost or utility savings, and curtail consumer choice. 

“Their plan is to electrify everything they possibly can because they are under this distorted fantasy that renewables will be plentiful and cheap and reliable. They are none of the above,” Mark Krebs, a mechanical engineer, energy policy consultant, and former DOE adviser told Fox News. “The physics defy what they want to do, the raw materials defy what they want to do, a free market economy defies what they want to do.”

Ben Lieberman, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the outlet, “The gas versions of water heaters will survive, but they’ll be more expensive and they’ll be a less desirable option than electric. So, this is using efficiency regulations to impose the electrification agenda.”

An executive for Rinnai America Corporation, a leading manufacturer of tankless water heaters,warned the DOE’s proposal “will create an uneven market that effectively bans an already energy efficient product and puts American jobs at risk.”

The proposed rule would raise standards for tankless gas-fired water heaters to 90% efficiency, while leaving the standards for tank gas-fired water heaters at 70% efficiency, according to Rinnai America. 

Achieving 91% efficiency with non-condensing technology is “technologically impossible,” the company said in a statement. 

Rinnai America President Frank Windsor said in a statement, “Consumers who rely on access to tankless water heaters will see their options limited, resulting in higher energy bills and shorter appliance lifespans, while the very environmental goals prompting this rule will go unfulfilled. We urge DOE to re-consider this untenable rule for standards that better protect American consumers and drive our energy efficiency goals forward.”

The DOE claims the new regulations are expected to save Americans approximately $198 billion and reduce 501 million metric tons of harmful carbon dioxide emissions cumulatively over 30 years. 

The Energy Department is required by law to conduct efficiency standard reviews every six years under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). The law was passed by Congress in 1975.

The Biden administration is moving forward with new rules that could impact more appliances, including consumer furnaces, pool pumps, battery chargers, ceiling fans, and dehumidifiers, according to Fox News. 

The administration says it took 110 actions in 2022 to strengthen energy efficiency standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a part of its climate agenda. 

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