Hot water heaters are one of the biggest energy consuming appliances in your home. According to the US Department of Energy, home water heaters can account for up to 15.5% your total energy bill, literally costing the typical homeowner hundreds of dollars every year.
Starting January 2009, five different types of ENERGY STAR®-compliant water heaters are hitting the market, available for retrofitting homes and for new construction.
What this means to the typical homeowner is a potential savings of 7.5% to 55% of their entire energy bill every month. Nothing to be sneezed at – the Department of Energy says that over the next five years, they expect $823 million will be saved nationwide as people convert to these ENERGY STAR® compliant hot water heaters.
The amount of electricity and natural gas saved over those five years would be enough to heat about 375,000 typical homes for a year. It would also help avoid dumping 4.2 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“Expansion of the ENERGY STAR® program to include water heaters will give Americans yet another way to use energy more efficiently in their homes and help the country increase energy security and address climate change,” DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Rodgers said in a press release.
The five types of hot water heaters that have achieved ENERGY STAR® compliance are:
- High-efficiency gas storage water heaters which achieve their efficiency through better insulation;
- Gas condensing water heaters, which achieve their efficiency by capturing heat from the flue gases;
- Whole-home gas tankless water heaters, which only heat water on demand;
- Heat Pump Water Heater which uses electricity to transfer heat from the air into the water, instead of using the energy for heating; and,
- Solar water heaters, with a variety of models already certified.
ENERGY STAR®, a joint project of the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, announced the criteria for achieving the ENERGY STAR® compliance certification April 1, 2008. Over the ensuing nine months, manufacturers came forward with a variety of designs for testing and certification, so their hot water heater could bear the ENERGY STAR® logo. The ENERGY STAR® program was started in 1992.
Not all of the models will be available immediately. Gas condensing models are not expected to hit the marketplace until later in 2009. For more information on models that have achieved ENERGY STAR® compliance, visit the ENERGY STAR® website at http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=new_specs.water_heaters
