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Is it really hard to comply with DOE’s furnace standards?
The decision made by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to resolve the lawsuit filed by the APGA (American Public Gas) for lifting the gas energy efficiency standards has turned out as a bad news for the consumers and the environment. Instead of trying to tackle the global warming issues through easier methods like enhanced energy efficient heating solutions, we are in fact ignoring it. Heating is the most energy consuming aspect in most of the households. The standards that have failed to enforce would have attained 90% efficiency and would have saved a considerable amount of money for the consumers but now there is only 80% savings as most of the furnaces available are only 80% efficient. The 11% savings in the bill is a huge loss for the consumers, especially when calculated in the long run.
Most of the northern parts support the high efficiency standards but others are not happy with it. The American Gas Association (AGA) believes that the higher cost for installing 90% gas energy efficient furnace would eventually be a burden for the consumers. However a few of the governing bodies like the AGA, American council for energy efficiency etc. have ruled it out by stating certain exemptions for consumers who in any case have to incur huge installation costs for a 90% efficiency gas furnace as compared to an 80% efficiency gas furnace.
Even though AGA has finally agreed to the new standards the APGA are still not satisfied with the suggestions. They completely disagreed with the concept and have stated that it will only make consumers switch to electrical furnace rather than consider installing a highly efficient gas furnace. According to the reports revealed by the Energy Information Administration there is in fact a drop in the sales of electric powered furnace as consumers now prefer gas furnaces due to its decreased operating cost benefits. In short the proposed settlement by the DOE has suppressed the new standards from taking into effect in the near future.