high efficiency mandate

[sidwelle]

Can anyone tell me what the current mandate is for replacing existing furnaces with high-efficiency units ?

I have herd many different deadlines from May of 2013 to Jan of 2015 ?

Is there any type of official Gov. page that states these regs ?

FYI, I live in IL.

Thanks

[PaxPerPoten]

No known mandate here.... Maybe in the Socialist Republic of Washington DC.

>

[TomR]

I came across the following article about a new federal law that could make replacing gas furnaces more expensive:

According to the article, a new law was to go into effect on May 1, 2013 that would require new gas furnaces to have a higher efficiency rating.

Here's a quote from the article:

"Under the Department of Energy rules, gas furnaces installed after May 1 must be at least 90 percent efficient, compared with the current 78 percent efficient criterion."

The article says that the law applies only to gas forced air furnaces and not gas boilers that heat water for hot water radiator heat.

Most of the article is about how, in certain circumstances, the venting requirements for the new higher efficiency gas furnaces will result in higher installation costs.

I'll have to check and see if I can see any websites that talk about extending the deadline beyond May 1, 2013.

[Moe DeLoughan]

The new regional energy standards for gas furnaces that were to go into effect as of May 15, 2013 were withdrawn as part of a court settlement. The standards had been challenged in court by a natural gas industry group and an HVAC contractors group. Under the planned rule, new and replacement furnaces installed in northern-tier states would have had to be at least 90% efficient.

The Dept of Energy will permit existing energy efficiency standards to remain in place until they draft new ones and get them through the traditional review/comment/revise/publish procedure.

The objections to the proposed new standard were that it would be very difficult and expensive to replace existing furnaces with condensing furnaces in certain housing units (such as condos and townhomes) where due to the design of the building there would be no easy way to vent the new furnace out to an exterior wall. The other objection was to the increased item and installation costs for the high-efficiency units; in light of the low current price of natural gas, the payback period was deemed unreasonably long.

More on the story:

[Tony944]

furnaces with high-efficiency units ?

{What seems to me here that big Landlords don't want spend any money let small home owner get rusted shaft. Thanks to our crooks in = Washington!}

[sidwelle]

Thanks for the articles.

Sid.