The Bot Administration is taking aim at gas burning appliances, including the gas furnaces in your home. The Department of Energy has said that these new Energy Efficiency regulations would slash household utility costs by $ 1.5 billion on an annual basis while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector. According to the Doe, this proposal would require non weatherized gas furnaces and those used in mobile homes to achieve a far higher level of efficiency than the cheaper models that are on the market. Jennifer Grome, who is the Energy Secretary Said quote at the direction of Congress Doe is continuing to review and finalize energy standards for household appliances such as residential furnaces to lower costs for Working Families by reducing energy use and slashing harmful pollutants in homes.

Across The Nation Before I go any further in this article that we're referencing I will put a link to to this article in the description of this video. but I Just want to say if you're watching this, I'm curious what your thoughts are on this. Do you like it When the government is trying to raise standards on how efficient a furnace has to be? Maybe to save you money, but I think we all know when they do this. it makes it to where the barrier to entry the purchase of these products does go up.

And I'm curious. Do you like that? Do you want them to make you save money? but you've got to pay more money on the front end. Let me know what your thoughts are down in the comments. but I will tell you later in this video.

I'm going to share a couple stories with you where we had some successes in this department at my company, but we'll get to that in just a moment. I Wanted to take a quick break from the video and thank the sponsor of this video Aeros Seal Leaky Duck Work is one of the biggest if not the biggest energy wasters in most homes in the United States and my favorite way of fixing that problem is Aeros Seal. They'll come into your your home, they'll test your duct work and how leaky it is. They'll seal all the duct work with a machine and then they'll test it again and make sure that you got what you paid for.

Customers have reported a significant savings on their energy bills after using Aeros Seal. I'll put a link down in the description of this video. Thanks again to Aeros Seal and now let's get back to the video. Today's measure, along with the administration's past and planned energy efficiency actions, underscores President Biden's commitment to save Americans money and deliver healthier communities.

she continued and so before I go any further with this article. I Just want to put a Quick Clip here from a recent interview with a Republican named Bill Johnson out of Ohio where he referenced some of these efforts and whether it's a good or bad thing, well, it's not more efficient. Uh, not only is it not more efficient, but it's more costly. Uh to uh to to remodify your home to handle electric ranges I can tell you I represent Eastern and Southeastern Ohio which is very rural here I Don't know very many people in my district that can afford to have their homes rewired uh to handle electric ranges and uh, um, electric furnaces.

Uh, that's not going to work for the people that I represent The Doe's finalized regulations, which are slated to go into effect in the year 2028 specifically require an AFU rating of 95% meaning manufacturers would not only have to sell furnaces that convert at least to 95% of fuel into the heat within 6 years, the current market Standard of AFU for residential furnaces is 80% and I Want to point out one thing. This is not just a matter of saying hey, all furnaces need to be more efficient. Another thing that should be mentioned is if you are going to go from say, an 80% furnace to a high efficiency condensing furnace like 95% the flu vent may need to be changed out so it's not just swapping a box. You might have to swap way more than that, so just keep that in mind as you consider for your home what you're going to do As far as furnaces go, Because of the stringent AFU requirements, the regulations would largely take non-condensing gas furnaces which are generally less efficient but cheaper off the market, but consumers who replace non-condensing furnaces with condensing furnaces after the rule is implemented face: Hefty Installation cost and I Got to tell you, the furnace itself is not a big deal, just swapping a box but that fluent that I was telling you about.

And also when it's a condensing furnace now you've got to figure out what are you going to do with this. You know, water, when a condensing furnace has to have a somewhere to drain to, you might have to install a pump. You might have to redo the drain work if it's a furnace that already had air conditioning already had a coil on. It may not be as big of a deal, but it is something you need to know.

Richard Meyer Who's Vice President of Energy Markets Analysis and Standards at the American Gas Association Previously told Fox News Quote: There are some really technical reasons why this is such a concerning rule unquote and so he goes more into what I was just talking about the flu Vents and some of the other things you're going to have to do to meet these newer standards. You could definitely check out that article that I was telling you about if you're curious. The article goes on to say that these regulations would remove up to 60% of the current residential furnaces off the market. However, the Department of Energy said in its announcement that the gas furnaces account for only 19% of annual Us residential energy use, meaning that higher efficiency would save energy and therefore curb emissions.

It projected that the regulations Friday would cut carbon emissions by 332 million metric tons over the next three decades. I Think we can all agree if this is true, that doing things for the environment is a good thing. I Think where a lot of folks will get frustrated is when it comes at a cost to them and their family, when it affects their income, when it affects how much they've got to pay for utility costs and how much food they can put on the table with their family. what are your thoughts? Comment down below.

I'd love to hear that. In addition to Consumer furnaces, over the last several months, the Doe has unveiled new standards for a wide variety of appliances including gas stoves, cloth washers, refrigerators, and air conditioners which we've done other videos on those it referenced all this earlier in the article it talked about mobile homes. I Can tell you that a lot of homes that are installed cheaply. so if they installed a mobile home furnace of some type, gas or electric with an outdoor unit, a lot of times they were going with the cheapest thing they can find.

And this isn't just mobile homes, this is homes in general. A lot of Builders are constantly just going with the cheapest thing just to get the house built. And one thing I'll encourage you to do is to not just consider the efficiency of the gas furnaces self, but the technology itself. Maybe explore options, get quotes we have customers I was telling you I would I would tell you a success story.

We've had customers at our company that had electric furnaces with a straight AC outdoor unit or a gas furnace with a straight AC outdoor unit. and if that gas is LP gas which it is in a lot of rural areas, then both of those options can get quite pricey in the winter time and so when you go to replace that system I would highly encourage you to maybe consider a dual fuel system or a heat pump outside that, if nothing else, it can run heat. on those mild days you're not burning gas, you're not burning an electric furnace with higher electric bills. And we had one customer specifically who saved hundreds.

Not a little bit of money per month, but hundreds of dollars per month. In fact, we did the math and within the first year of putting in the system that we put in, she saved enough on her electric bill because she had an electric furnace that it paid for itself in the first year. so every year after that, she was saving money. So I'll wrap up with this: I Don't think this is the end of all this I think that over the next decade we're going to see more regulations coming out.

higher standards on some of the appliances we install in our home good or bad, and I think it's going to dramatically affect how expensive a lot of these things are. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to get a system that's more efficient, but there were times when maybe you would would have gone with something less efficient. Maybe you were selling the homes you don't care what the utility bills are going to be like. Now you're going to have no choice with some of these higher standard equipment.

If they cost more, you're going to have to bite the bullet and pay that extra cost. So if you like this video I Think you'll like this one even more. It's where I Talk about six reasons why your furnace may not be working. Thanks for watching Hit that subscribe button.

We'll see you next time.