It’s Time to Finalize a Stronger, Better Standard for Gas Furnaces

Heating bills are typically the largest energy expense for U.S. homes, and more than half of the country is heated with natural gas furnaces. Yet, while the technology to make furnaces more efficient has been available for quite some time now, the standard that regulates their efficiency has remained essentially unchanged for 25 years.

We now have the opportunity to change that. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is on track to finalize this year’s updated efficiency standards for new gas furnaces manufactured in 2022 and beyond. This issue brief quantifies the lost energy savings and missed opportunity caused by the delays in updating the standard and emphasizes the strong momentum that the DOE now has to finalize the recently proposed standard. Updating the standard would save U.S. consumers billions on their winter heating bills, reduce harmful carbon pollution, and unlock innovation—potentially saving even more energy.