By H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

As families face record heating bills, the Energy Department issued new requirements yesterday for residential furnaces, although critics say the rules will do little to save consumers money or bring more efficient equipment onto the market.

The new standard, which replaces 15-year-old regulations, requires all residential gas furnaces to be 80 percent efficient by 2015. Energy-efficiency advocates argue that almost all gas furnaces sold already meet that level, meaning it will do little to spur new technology.

Efficiency advocates had pushed for a minimum of 90 percent efficiency, a level already achieved or exceeded by about a third of the gas furnaces sold, or for regional standards with more stringent requirements in cold-weather areas.

The Energy Department rejected both options, maintaining it has no authority to issue regional standards -- a position some advocates dispute. Energy legislation now before Congress would specifically allow regional standards.

The new federal requirements would increase the minimum efficiency standards for residential gas furnaces from 78 percent to 80 percent and oil furnaces from 78 percent to 82 percent, which about a third of oil furnaces already meet. Efficiency levels for oil and gas boilers also would increase.

The percentages reflect the amount of heat put out by a furnace compared with the energy actually produced by the fuel that is being burned. At 80 percent efficiency, one-fifth of the energy produced by the natural gas is lost.

Efficiency advocates said the greatest potential for energy savings and reduction in carbon dioxide, a leading cause of global warming, rests in improvements in natural gas furnace efficiency.

About 3.2 million gas furnaces are sold every year, compared with about 120,000 oil furnaces and about 300,000 oil and gas boilers, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

The new standards "will not only cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, but they also allow consumers to make smarter energy choices that will save energy and money," Alexander Karsner, the department's assistant secretary for efficiency and renewables, said in a statement.

Consumer and efficiency advocates scoffed at the government energy-saving projections as far less than what is achievable.

"It's a do-nothing standard," said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Boston-based Appliance Standard Awareness Project, a private advocacy group. "If you care about efficiency, it's kind of a joke. It's very disappointing."

Four states -- Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and Maryland -- have already set their own furnace standards, with several other states expected to do so soon.

A 90 percent efficiency standard for gas furnaces "would provide more than 17 times the carbon savings" as the new regulations, said David Goldstein, energy program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. A typical consumer would save 11 percent on a home heating bill with a 90-percent-efficient gas furnace, compared with many of the units now being used, according to ACEEE.

The new furnace standards were issued under pressure from the courts. In January 2006, the department announced a plan to eliminate a 30-year backlog on appliance standards and to issue new standards on 18 appliances over the next five years.

The department had asked for more time to consider the impact of high natural gas prices on its furnace regulations and possibly consider the tougher 90 percent standard for gas furnaces. But a federal court rejected a time extension.

The Energy Department "didn't need a do-over," said Charles Harak of the National Consumer Law Center. He said the department is 13 years behind a legal deadline for setting new furnace standards and has had extensive analysis of the 90-percent-efficiency option.

The new standards, to go into effect in 2015, replace requirements that were issued in 1987 and went into effect in 1992.