ESC Residential Consortium Minutes 031121

ESC Residential Consortium Minutes from March 11, 2021 Meeting was called to order at 2:04 pm Eastern Time Attendance: ATCO Drew Plett Atmos Bridget Wallace Black Hills Energy Ruth Hietbrink CenterPoint Energy Kathryn Knudson CenterPoint Energy Randy Cech DTE Energy Jim Leidel Duke Energy Terry Marcum East Tennessee Group Mike Gundersen Enbridge Gas Don Armitage Eversource Christopher Ehlert Florida Public Utilities Leb Stepherson Fortis BC Diana Aguilar FortisBC Tanja Percival Lake Apopka NG Steve Hotaling Municipal Gas Authority of GA Chris Strippelhoff National Fuel Marti Sawyer National Fuel Ashley Butera National Fuel John Polka NW Natural Brenda Hartzog NW Natural John Frankel Semco Energy Michelle Levin SoCal Debbie Eggers SoCal Cherif Youssef Spire Kathleen Crowley UGI Kim Geder DOE Withdraws Furnace Rule: After six years of debate the DOE has finally decided to withdraw the furnace rule. This was originally issued in March of 2015 and attempted to set one minimum efficiency for residential furnaces regardless if the unit was condensing or non-condensing. There was also a proposal in May of 2016 to extend this ruling to commercial water heaters. After reviewing all comments and supporting documents, the DOE found the non-condensing technology and associated venting was considered a “feature” under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and as such cannot be eliminated through the adoption of an energy conservation standard. The withdrawal was effective on January 15, 2021. It is anticipated that the DOE will be issuing new standards for non-condensing and condensing residential furnaces as well as commercial water heaters. But it has been noted that there are parties who are not embracing the withdrawal and will endeavor to have it changed. Stay tuned! ASHRAE 62.2 and Unvented Combustion Heaters: For years, ASHRAE has debated on how to restrict the installation of unvented combustion heaters, including vent-free fireplaces, which are widely used across the US. The ASHRAE standards committee and BoD recently considered language for the proposed restrictions. To hear that a review committee has voted to ban the units came as a surprise. It appears the technical justifications based upon indoor air quality data and analysis were ignored. Another surprising twist was the lack of response/comment by the manufacturers of unvented combustion heaters. Fortunately, the vote needed to go to the full membership and not just the committee. The vote by the full membership resulted in a tie so the ban will not go into effect. Further actions are expected so once again, stay tuned! EPA Indoor AirPLUS Version 2: The EPA Indoor AirPLUS is a voluntary partnership and labeling program that helps new home builders improve the quality of indoor air. It does this by requiring construction practices and product specifications that minimize exposure to airborne pollutants and contaminants. A draft of version 2 for AirPLUS has recently been released. In this draft, there are no proposed restrictions on the installation of gas-fired domestic cooking appliances other than the product exhaust requirements which are applicable to both gas and electric cooking appliances. However, the draft did include a ban of natural draft gas-fired furnaces, boilers and water heaters installed within the pressure boundary of the structure and the mechanical closure of combustion make-up air openings to the outside during appliance off cycles. There was no technical justification for either requirement. Efforts by both AGA and manufacturers of unvented combustion heating appliances have been unsuccessful. Comments are being accepted through March 17 and the AGA BECS staff will be providing comments. AHRI Webinar: AHRI has organized a webinar on heating appliance operation utilizing hydrogen/natural gas blends. Speakers include AGA, CSA Group and Enertek International. The webinar will be held on March 17 at 11:00 am Eastern time. If you want to attend this webinar you may register by following this link: https://webinar.ringcentral.com/webinar/register/WN_P2bV4NVDQ5e5BOxcfz3ndA Talking Points on Electrification: As requested by the consortium, Barb prepared some talking points on residential electrification. Information was gathered from a variety of sources and the material was presented as a PowerPoint presentation. Following the presentation, Barb asked for comments and how the group wanted to receive the information. John Frankel, NWN, noted that the presentation should be provided to members as is and each company could use the info in a manner that best suited them. Barb will post the PowerPoint in the members only section of the ESC web site. Please be sure to read the notes section of the slides as there are good talking points located there for most slides. The presentation can be found here: https://www.energysolutionscenter.org/consortia/residential_burner_tip_other_deliverables1.aspx Please remember that due to issues with Chrome that have not been resolved please right clink on the presentation title and select open in new tab. Kat Knudson, CenterPoint Energy, shared that they have a green hydrogen project that is moving forward in June and should be operational by Q3. Barb mentioned that SoCalGas has been doing a lot of work centered on hydrogen and she will share that information along with a compilation of other member company projects. (The list is posted with the talking points mentioned above.) Chris Stripplehoff, Municipal Gas of GA, noted that members should share their projects with each other. James Leidel, DTE, also reminded the group to share any mCHP and GHP projects they have as well. NAHB Study: In closing, Barb asked the group if there was any interest in updating the NAHB study on the premium associated with a gas house that was completed back in 2016. Bridgett Wallace, Atmos Energy, noted that with the electrification movement, we might want to add some questions to see if builders have made any changes in light of this movement. There seemed to be interest so Barb will conduct a survey of the consortium and then look to work with a core group to develop questions. The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 PM Eastern time.