Posted on 03/25/2015 9:24:41 AM PDT by virgil283
"But the new federal HVAC regulations 2015 are a big deal! For the first time, the DOE is implementing minimum federal efficiency standards – by region. And NEW water heater energy requirements, effective 4/16/2015!"...Seer ratings increased by region and a 1-800 hotline to Feds to report your contractor....
(Excerpt) Read more at southcharlottelifestyle.com ...
On a split systems the outdoor unit will have a tag giving SEER rating that must match the SEER rating of the indoor coil. If they don't there will be a 1-800 number to report your contractor to the feds...You might think this good but this will mean higher costs to you and everyone else.
They’ve set even more stringent energy regulations every 2 years into the foreseeable future.
Jeez, I remember when 6 SEER was considered efficient. You’re talking bigger coils for sure.
Thank goodness the feds are doing something of paramount importance to protect us from ourselves. I feel safe already
didn't hear that...like what?
http://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/energy/fedreq.htm
These standards are for federal buildings, however, many state and local agencies follow the federal standards (and receive incentives to write laws that do so).
The goal is zero net energy by 2050 in buildings
My plan for zero energy wasted in government buildings is to padlock the doors...
Yep, one new law has an impact tenfold downstream. Dumb asses.
It just seems like more hoops for people to jump through to cost the homeowner more money.
Where did you find that bit about calling the federal government about the mis-match?
We live in Californicator land. We decided that we want to live here until we are carried out of the house feet first.
So we decided last year to upgrade our HVAC from one old inefficient unit to two units with the new ducting.
Then, we replaced our hot water heating system with a gas on demand system.
Next, we replaced our old tar and gravel roof with a new shingle one with the newly required insulation.
The exhaust vents from the furnaces and on demand hot water heater are pvc instead of metal because the units are so efficient, only cool moist air goes out the exhaust.
Finally, we put a Nest thermostat in the area where we spend most of our time connected to the main new HVAX and a standard thermostat to the smaller unit which services the living room, dining room, guest bedrooms/baths and my office. The Nest is not connected to our internet nor WiFi to avoid someone outside our home playing games or monitoring it.
We keep the second standard thermostat for the other and smaller HVAC at 62 degrees in the fall/winter/spring and 75 in the summer.
The Nest starts the morning heat in our main living areas at 5:30 am to 66, then to 68 degrees from 6 am to noon and back to 64 from noon until 6 pm to coincide with PG&E plan to minimize electricity use from noon to 6 pm for their lowest rate. At 6 pm the Nest resets the thermostat to 68 degrees. When we leave the family room to go bed at night, the Nest sets the thermostat down to 63 until 5:30 am the next morning and recycles the daily routine.
The on demand gas water heater does a recycle and on demand heating job from 5:30 am to 6:30 am for our morning use in the kitchen, and if we want to shower. Then, it powers down until about 5:30 pm to 7 pm for the evening dinner prep and clean up. Any laundry that wasn’t done before 12 pm gets done after 6 pm, and the dishwasher is run after dinner if necessary.
We put in a new Bosch dishwasher at the end of last year. It holds more and does a great job with the on demand water heater set at 115 degrees.
We are very comfortable and more so than any other winter in our home since 1977.
March has been mild here, and we have 5 days of zero gas use so far.
Our electric and gas bills are less than half the average monthly bills from a year ago.
In drought hit California, water use is a big factor. Our water use is 20% less than last year with the on demand water heater. We used to have to run the water for a couple of minutes to get the water tolerable to shower or do dishes. Now it is hot and there in less than a minute and sometimes seconds.
However, these changes were our choices not our governments saying to do it.
… beginning January, 2015 HVAC regulations will require that when one of the two main air conditioner units (inside or outside) fails, beyond reasonable repair, the home owner may well have to replace both the inside and the outside units …
… even if one is still functioning well!
Sounds like you did some research to put that all together..Thumbs up!
lol, good one
Thanks.
We have a great contractor, and we don’t mind paying him $50 per hour to do research like this.
He did about 10 hour research on this project from the roof, to the 2 HVACs, the new ducting and the on demand hot water heater. We didn’t get the Home Depot/Lowe’s models.
He discussed it with us and I added 3 large insulated sky lights and one of the smaller high powered one to illuminate work areas and reading/study areas. There is zero need for overhead lights in most of the house with any type of daylight.
His plan worked and makes our home a very comfortable one.
And the copper coils replaced with aluminum ones means they can’t be welded to fix a crack - have to take out the whole assembly and replace it sometimes.
There are going to be lots of new complete systems installed because you would have to prove that a system is 14 SEER using ARI data. Most manufactures only test their own blowers, condensers and coils together so you couldn’t easily match a Trane furnace blower with a Lennox coil and a York condenser.
All true, while the overwhelming number of wholesalers are honest people, there is little incentive for them to match to other brands.
The consumer will be the loser here....
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