Commercial Water Heating Equipment

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Commercial water heating equipment includes commercial storage water heaters, commercial instantaneous water heaters and hot water supply boilers, and unfired hot water storage tanks. Commercial water heating equipment includes gas-fired, oil-fired, and electric industrial equipment. As defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), storage water heaters heat and store water within the appliance at a thermostatically controlled temperature for delivery on demand, and have an input rating less than 4,000 Btu/h per gallon of stored water. Instantaneous water heaters have an input rating not less than 4,000 Btu/h per gallon of stored water. Hot water supply boilers are packaged boilers that heat potable water for purposes other than space heating. Unfired hot water storage tanks store water that is heated externally. 10 CFR 431.102 Manufacturers have been required to comply with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) energy conservation standards for commercial water heating equipment since 1992.

Current Standard | Current Test Procedure | Ongoing Rulemaking for Standards | Ongoing Rulemaking for Test Procedure | Helpful Links


Recent and Ongoing Activities

DOE has issued a pre-publication Federal Register final rule incorporating by reference the latest version of the industry testing standard for consumer water heaters and residential-duty commercial water heaters and adopts relevant portions of those standards into the Federal test procedure. In this final rule, DOE is also expanding the scope of coverage of the test procedure to apply to certain consumer water heater designs (including circulating water heaters and low-temperature water heaters), adding definitions for certain specialty water heaters, updating test conditions and tolerance requirements to reduce burden, clarifying test set-up and installation methods, addressing the test conduct for products which can store water at temperatures above the delivery setpoint, establishing an effective volume calculation, and extending untested provisions to electric instantaneous water heaters.

  • The effective date of this rule is 30 days after the notice has been published in the Federal Register. DOE will send a follow-up e-mail once the notice publishes to announce the effective date.
  • The final rule changes will be mandatory for consumer water heater testing starting 180 days after the notice has been published in the Federal Register and for residential-duty commercial water heater testing starting 360 days after the notice has been published in the Federal Register. DOE will send a follow-up e-mail once the notice publishes to announce the effective date. 
  • The incorporation by reference of certain publications listed in the rule is approved by the Director of the Federal Register on 30 days after the notice has been published in the Federal Register. DOE will send a follow-up e-mail once the notice publishes to announce the effective date.

PETITION FOR RULEMAKING

Notice of Supplemental Proposed Interpretive Rule

  • Federal Register, 85FR60090 (September 24, 2020)

Notice of Proposed Interpretive Rule

For the latest information on the planned timing of future DOE regulatory milestones, see the current Office of Management and Budget Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. All planned dates are preliminary and subject to change.

Standards

Notice of Final Determination; Unfired Hot Water Storage Tanks
  • Federal Register, 87FR31359 (May 24, 2022)
  • The effective date of this Final Determination is July 25, 2022.

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Comment Extension

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Notification of Final Interpretive Rule

  • Federal Register, 86FR73947 (December 29, 2021)

Notification of Proposed Interpretive Rule; Comment Extension 

Notification of Proposed Interpretive Rule

  • Federal Register, 86FR53014 (September 24, 2021)
  • Federal Register, 86FR48049 (August 27, 2021)

Notification of Proposed Determination

  • Federal Register, 86FR30796 (June 10, 2021)

Notice of Final Interpretive Rule

  • Federal Register, 86FR4776 (January 15, 2021)

Notice of Final Interpretive Rule

  • Federal Register, 85FR67312 (October 22, 2020)

Request for Information; Reopening of Public Comment Period

Request for Information; Unfired Hot Water Storage Tanks

Notice of Petition for Rulemaking; Comment Extension

Notice of Petition for Rulemaking

  • Federal Register, 84 FR 449 (January 29, 2019)
  • Federal Register, 83 FR 54883 (November 1, 2018)

The commercial water heating equipment energy conservation standard rulemaking docket EERE-2014-BT-STD-0042 contains all notices, public comments, public meeting transcripts, and supporting documents pertaining to this rulemaking.

Public Meeting Information:

There is no public meeting scheduled at this time.

 

Submitting Public Comments

The comment period is closed.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Notice of Proposed  Rulemaking
Notice of Data Availability

DOE undertook a rulemaking that concluded with a final rule in July 2015 amending energy conservation standards for commercial oil-fired storage water heaters. 80 FR 42614 (July 17, 2015). The rulemaking docket EERE-2014-BT-STD-0015 for energy conservation standard and test procedures for certain commercial heating, air conditioners, and water heating equipment (including commercial oil-fired storage water heaters) contains all notices, public comments, public meeting transcripts, and supporting documents pertaining to this rulemaking.

Test Procedure

Final Rule
Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
  • Federal Register, 87FR42270 (July 14, 2022)

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

  • Federal Register, 87FR1554 (January 11, 2022)

DOE undertook a rulemaking that concluded with a final rule in November 2016 to revise the commercial water heaters test procedure. 81 FR 79261.

The commercial water heater test procedure rulemaking docket EERE-2014-BT-TP-0008 contains all notices, public comments, public meeting transcripts, and supporting documents pertaining to this rulemaking.

Public Meeting Information

There is no public meeting scheduled at this time.

Submitting Public Comments

The comment period is closed.


Current Standard

Commercial water heating equipment manufactured and distributed in commerce, as defined by 42 U.S.C. 6291(16), must meet the energy conservation standards specified in the Code of Federal Regulations at 10 CFR 431.110.


Current Test Procedure

To determine that commercial water heating equipment that is currently manufactured or distributed into commerce is in compliance with DOE standards, manufacturers must follow the test procedure methods specified at 10 CFR 431.106.


Helpful Links

Compliance

DOE has established regulations on certification, compliance, and enforcement in the CFR at 10 CFR Part 429.  These regulations cover statistical sampling plans, certified ratings, certification reports, record retention, and enforcement.  More information on these regulations is available here.

Waivers

For information on current test procedure waivers, see DOE’s Waivers webpage.

For information about obtaining test procedure waivers, see 10 CFR part 431, subpart V.

Exceptions

DOE's Office of Hearings and Appeals has not authorized exception relief for commercial water heating equipment.

For information about obtaining exception relief, see 10 CFR part 1003.

Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions

For information on further guidance and answers to Frequently Asked Questions on all covered products, see DOE’s Further Guidance database.

State Exemptions to Federal Pre-emption

DOE has not exempted any state from this energy conservation standard. States may petition DOE to exempt a state regulation from preemption by the Federal energy conservation standard. States may also petition DOE to withdraw such exemptions. For details, see 10 CFR part 431, subpart W.

Contact information

For more information related to this product, please email:
ApplianceStandardsQuestions@ee.doe.gov


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