On May 5, 2022, the Department of Energy published a notice of proposed rulemaking, in which it proposed more stringent standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act for commercial water heating equipment. The rulemaking applies to gas storage, instantaneous water heaters, and gas hot water supply boilers, but excludes commercial oil-fired storage water heaters. Under the proposed rule, such equipment would be required to implement condensing technology to reduce energy consumption by extracting additional heat during the combustion process. DOE predicts that the proposed standards would reduce carbon emissions by an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 4.8 million homes, while cutting methane emissions by an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 2.3 million gasoline cars.
DOE is accepting comments for sixty days after the notice of proposed rulemaking’s publication in the Federal Register. DOE is also holding a public meeting on the proposed rule on June 6, 2016, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., in Washington, DC.