Posted on 11/26/2012 3:13:25 PM PST by Timber Rattler
Replacing an aging furnace could cost homeowners thousands of dollars more after May 1, when new federal energy efficiency standards take effect for northern states, including New Jersey.
The new energy-efficient natural gas furnaces aren’t that much more expensive themselves, but they must be vented directly to an outside wall rather than through the chimney, which can increase installation costs dramatically, home heating contractors say.
(snip)
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.
Similar improvements in energy efficiency are set to go into effect for heat pumps and air conditioning systems in Southern states.
(snip)
The rules were produced after Congress passed a law in 2007 allowing the Department of Energy to develop regional standards for central heating and cooling equipment.
Analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that between 2013 and 2045, the higher-efficiency furnaces, air conditioning systems and heat pumps would save about one-fifth of the amount of total energy used annually by the U.S. residential sector.
In addition, the drop in energy use would result in greenhouse gas reductions of up to 143 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over those three decades. That’s equivalent to the amount of carbon emitted each year to produce the electricity used by 1.8 million homes, or the carbon emissions produced from burning nearly 77,900 railcars worth of coal, according to an Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas calculator.
(Excerpt) Read more at northjersey.com ...
I live in Texas, we don’t have furnaces... we have outside
Greenhouse gas production - pure BS. Millions and billions spent on nonsense.
My last gas furnace was installed over twenty years ago and vented directly outside. I don’t remember that running twenty feet of three inch plastic pipe cost all that much.
Similar improvements in energy efficiency are set to go into effect for heat pumps and air conditioning systems in Southern states.
Cool venting gas furnaces are more efficient, and I have neighbors who have them just because they want to. I don’t know why the cool vent can’t also be sent to a chimney or to a roof top vent for convenience sake. The vent is a curiosity because it hisses most of the time.
NNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fortunately, the local code inspector is half blind and likes cheap tequila, so using the old Soviet method of coping, I pretty much do what I like here. Bootlegged a pig and called it a dog until it was big enough to slaughter. ;)
/johnny
Gotta get those solyndra dollars back through kick backs
Whistling past the graveyard is not the best policy. They will get around to you eventually if they haven’t already.
Stupid people in this country vote for this sh#t. Makes me want to puke.
lol
/johnny
I don’t think the Federal government has any business getting involved in such mandates. But I suspect that these higher efficiency furnaces will save most users quite a bit of money.
When I was a kid we didn’t have air conditioning in the drafty wooden house we lived in. This was about 1980. We did have a water cooler in the living room window that we used sparingly- and it certainly wouldn’t cool the whole house.
The enclosed back porch with screens for windows and a leaky roof was often mine and my brothers room.
Today, it’d be called child abuse. lol
I am just hoping we collapse sooner rather than later so we can get it over with already.
vents, we don't need no stinking vents
And where in the Constitution does Congress have the power to develop regional standards for central heating and cooling equipment?
Not sure about the cost savings for some folks. They have more (expensive) parts to fail, and nat gas is very cheap these days.
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