Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Water Heaters

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <CFR>10 CFR Parts 429 and 430</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EERE 2017-BT-STD-0019]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1904-AD91</RIN> <SUBJECT>Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Water Heaters</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended (“EPCA”), prescribes energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment, including consumer water heaters. EPCA also requires the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE” or “the Department”) to periodically determine whether more stringent standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified, and would result in significant energy savings. In this final rule, DOE is adopting amended energy conservation standards for consumer water heaters. It has determined that the new and amended energy conservation standards for these products would result in significant conservation of energy, and are technologically feasible and economically justified. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The effective date of this rule is July 5, 2024. Compliance with the new and amended standards established for consumer water heaters in this final rule is required on and after May 6, 2029. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The docket for this rulemaking, which includes <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notices, public meeting attendee lists and transcripts, comments, and other supporting documents/materials, is available for review at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> . All documents in the docket are listed in the <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> index. However, not all documents listed in the index may be publicly available, such as information that is exempt from public disclosure. The docket web page can be found at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov/docket/EERE-2017-BT-STD-0019</E> . The docket web page contains instructions on how to access all documents, including public comments, in the docket. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Ms. Julia Hegarty, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Office, EE-5B, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. Email: <E T="03">ApplianceStandardsQuestions@ee.doe.gov</E> . Ms. Melanie Lampton, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the General Counsel, GC-33, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (240) 751-5157. Email: <E T="03">Melanie.Lampton@hq.doe.gov</E> . For further information on how to review the docket, contact the Appliance and Equipment Standards Program staff at (202) 287-1445 or by email: <E T="03">ApplianceStandardsQuestions@ee.doe.gov</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Synopsis of the Final Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Benefits and Costs to Consumers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Impact on Manufacturers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. National Benefits and Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Conclusion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Introduction</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Authority</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Current Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. History of Standards Rulemaking for Consumer Water Heaters</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Scope of This Final Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. General Discussion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. General Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. General Support</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. General Opposition</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Selection of Standards Levels</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Scope of Coverage and Definitions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Test Procedure</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Technological Feasibility</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. General</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Maximum Technologically Feasible Levels</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Energy Savings</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Determination of Savings</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Significance of Savings</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Economic Justification</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Specific Criteria</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Economic Impact on Manufacturers and Consumers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Savings in Operating Costs Compared To Increase in Price (LCC and PBP)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Energy Savings</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">d. Lessening of Utility or Performance of Products</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">e. Impact of Any Lessening of Competition</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">f. Need for National Energy Conservation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">g. Other Factors</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Rebuttable Presumption</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Methodology and Discussion of Related Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Market and Technology Assessment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Product Classes</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Circulating Water Heaters</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Low-Temperature Water Heaters</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Storage-Type and Instantaneous-Type Product Classes</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">d. Gas-Fired Water Heaters</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">e. Very Large Gas-Fired Storage Water Heaters</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">f. Electric Storage Water Heaters</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Technology Options</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Screening Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Screened-Out Technologies</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Remaining Technologies</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Engineering Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Product Classes With Current UEF-Based Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Efficiency Levels</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Design Options</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Cost Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">d. Shipping Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">e. Cost-Efficiency Results</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Product Classes Without Current UEF-Based Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Crosswalk to Equivalent-Stringency UEF-Based Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Consideration of More Stringent Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Circulating Water Heaters</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Manufacturer Selling Price</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Markups Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Energy Use Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Building Sample</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Hot Water Use Determination</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Energy Use Determination</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Life-Cycle Cost and Payback Period Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Product Cost</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Installation Cost</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Basic Installation Costs and Inputs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Gas-Fired and Oil-Fired Storage Water Heater Installation Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Heat Pump Water Heater Installation Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Annual Energy Consumption</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">4. Energy Prices</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">5. Maintenance and Repair Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">6. Product Lifetime</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">7. Discount Rates</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">8. Energy Efficiency Distribution in the No-New-Standards Case</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">9. Payback Period Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">10. Accounting for Product Switching</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">11. Analytical Results</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Shipments Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Impact of Potential Standards on Shipments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Impact of Consumer Choice for Electric Storage Water Heaters</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Impact of Repair vs. Replace</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. National Impact Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Product Efficiency Trends</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. National Energy Savings</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Net Present Value Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Consumer Subgroup Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Low-Income Households</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Senior-Only Households</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Small Business Subgroup</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. Manufacturer Impact Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Overview</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Government Regulatory Impact Model and Key Inputs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Manufacturer Production Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Shipments Projections</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Product and Capital Conversion Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">d. Manufacturer Markup Scenarios</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Discussion of MIA Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Conversion Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Cumulative Regulatory Burden</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Manufacturing Capacity</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">K. Emissions Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Air Quality Regulations Incorporated in DOE's Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">L. Monetizing Emissions Impacts</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Monetization of Greenhouse Gas Emissions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Social Cost of Carbon</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Social Cost of Methane and Nitrous Oxide</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> c. Sensitivity Analysis Using Updated SC-GHG Estimates </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Monetization of Other Emissions Impacts</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">M. Utility Impact Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">N. Employment Impact Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Analytical Results and Conclusions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Trial Standard Levels</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Economic Justification and Energy Savings</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Economic Impacts on Individual Consumers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Life-Cycle Cost and Payback Period</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Consumer Subgroup Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Rebuttable Presumption Payback</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Economic Impacts on Manufacturers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Industry Cash Flow Analysis Results</FP> <FP SOUR ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 925k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━