New water heaters energy efficiency standards affects consumer buying decisions
Many changes to water heaters have been put into effect, this could be affect your next water heater purchase. It has been decided since April 16, 2015, with a goal to design more performant water heaters, many manufacturers must adhere to a newer higher energy efficiency standards.
This is good news for homes and property owners, looking forward to getting more energy saving and environmentally safe appliances. Water would be heated at a much lower cost to the consumer, and also reduce over 182 million tons of greenhouse emissions. And that is mainly due to the improvements made to major components and the insulation added to water heaters as well as a size increase. These positive changes will however affect consumers budgets, since it lead to an increase of their cost.
If a water heater is installed in a narrow and tight location or a place with less room for adjustment, you may have problems with installing a new model. The additional insulation making these units more effective requires an increase in their width and height; thus, installations put in closets and other slender areas would not be possible anymore.
Most homes use either a 40 or 50 gallon water heater, but for those that measure above 55-gallons, there are other new efficiency methods. For water warmers bigger than 55-gallons, a heat pump or tankless water heaters will have to be purchased to achieve the new energy efficiency standards. These sorts of water heaters are altogether more pricy than tank-style, and they offer much better in terms of efficiency. While a few consumers may be shocked by the increase in price, they will end up making savings on their future utility bills over the unit’s life span.
However for those consumers not yet convinced of the facts, and still want to buy units at the old cheaper prices, they can still purchase and install older standard water heater, at the condition that their manufacturing date is before April 16, 2015, and until they are out of stock.
Gas Water Heater Efficiency Standards
For water heaters making use of gas 50 gallons or less, with the EF measures having only a little change. 100, 60, and 75 gallon tank style heaters may have to be replaced with hybrid appliances to satisfy the required energy efficiency standard.
Electric Water Heater Efficiency Standards
Electric water heaters have dependably and high-efficiency standards. They currently even have considerably more strict standards. This is on the grounds that power is less efficient for warming water than gas.
For appliances bigger than 55 gallons, there is a noteworthy bounce in efficiency standards. The EF minimum rises twice the standard rate. So while these devices will be more expensive, the cost of operating similar consumption levels may remain less than half the current rate.
What Are The Alternatives To New Standard Water Heaters?
So if you have a huge electric or gas water heater which can no longer be replaced with another tank-style unit, what are your alternatives?
Install More Than a Smaller Unit
As opposed to replacing a 75-gallon heater with a moderate heat pump unit, you could choose to acquire two 40-gallon water heaters to function together simultaneously.
Use A Tankless Water Heater Instead
Tankless function much more efficiently. The retrofit and installation costs might be expensive, but with an average lifespan of more than 20 years, which enables homeowners to save more by reduced utility bills through the shelf life of the unit.
