The largest energy savings of installing a PMM pump comes from the ability to program and reduce the flow rate to match the required pumping task.

You've probably heard of Energy Star—the program launched by the U.S. government to incentivize efficiency in product development. Created by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1992, the voluntary program awards attention-grabbing blue "badges" to products that meet certain efficiency standards.

The Energy Star badge goes one step beyond the federal minimum efficiency standards established by the Department of Energy in 1975. And while it's considered voluntary, the marketing advantage Energy Star provides ensures that the vast majority of products meet the program's requirements.

Along with the federal minimum standards, Energy Star has helped improve efficiency performance across more than 60 product categories. In 1993, the year after the program launched, American homes consumed an average of 103.6 million BTUs of energy, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. By 2009, that figure had dropped to 89.6 million BTUs—a 14 percent decrease in energy consumption per household.

Of course, there are more housing units today than there were in 1993—about 17 million more. So that surge in housing forced a 2 percent net increase in residential energy consumption. However, if household energy consumption remained at its 1993 levels, there would have been an 18 percent increase in total residential energy usage.


Clearly, these numbers support the existence of both federal efficiency standards and the Energy Star program. The marketing advantage for manufacturers is also clear. Among fridges, roughly 80 percent are now Energy Star qualified.


However, there has always been some back-and-forth between the industry, the government, and private efficiency advocates over the proper specifications for these programs.

Starting this week, residential refrigerators will have to meet a new set of efficiency requirements for both Energy Star and the Department of Energy's federal minimums—the latter of which is obligatory. This has sent manufacturers scrambling to bring more efficient fridges to market, causing confusion among producers and consumers alike.

Why refrigerators?

Fridges are a unique category: They run 24 hours a day, and are generally considered an indispensable part of the modern home. They're also one of the most energy-intensive products in the home. And over the past few decades, their efficiency has skyrocketed.




So why is the EPA upgrading fridge standards now? Why not focus on more wasteful products like ovens and dryers? Aren't fridges efficient enough? Are these new rules… excessive?

It's certainly true that modern refrigerators are staggeringly more efficient than models produced in the 1970's and 80's—in some cases by up to 75 percent. The Energy Star requirements that go into effect this week stipulate that a 28-cubic-foot fridge may not exceed 403.82 kWh per year. If you compare that with the average annual energy consumption of a fridge in 1980—roughly 1,250 kWh/year—you can see how great the improvement has been.

But these statistics are a bit misleading, if only because of how darn wasteful older machines were. Even with the new Energy Star requirements, the refrigerator itself is one of the most energy-intensive products in the home, perhaps second only to the air conditioner.

Fridges make up roughly 5 percent of an average U.S. home's total energy consumption, according to EIA data, and even a new Energy Star–labeled fridge—which improves 10 percent on previous generations—consumes more energy per year than the average citizen of Ghana.

"Ten percent may not seem like a big number," says Ann Bailey, product labeling branch chief for Energy Star. "But when you look at what that means across all of the sales, when all refrigerators have met those requirements, the difference amounts to the equivalent of taking one million cars off the road—and $890 million in energy savings."

Earl F. Jones, senior counsel for GE Appliance and Lighting, agrees. While acknowledging that Energy Star is hardly a "voluntary" program due to the economic realities of the market, Jones points out that the average increase in efficiency from the 2001 standards to 2014 is 30 percent. And that's just the DOE-regulated minimum requirements.

"Thirty percent savings in a refrigerator is very significant," he says. "Plus, remember this is a product that's on 24/7. The potential for savings is more significant than [...] products where you’re also getting new standards next year, but your use of them is intermittent."

Dive Brief:

• The figure is highly variable, depending on geography and demographics, but on average it costs $0.025 to save a kilowatt-hour of electricity, according to research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The analysis looked at efficiency programs funded by customers of investor-owned utilities.
• Costs were lower in the Midwest, where utilities have less experience with efficiency programs and more low-hanging fruit; in the Northeast, the cost reached $0.033/kWh, on average, because the region has several states with more developed efficiency programs.
• As utilities have focused on reducing emissions and cleaning up their energy mix, energy efficiency has become a key tool in achieving clean energy goals. Some 30 states and the District of Columbia have adopted efficiency policies, including two dozen that adopted an energy efficiency resource standard, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said last year.

Dive Insight:

The concept of "low-hanging fruit" is fairly well-known in energy efficiency: Some improvements, primarily lighting, are easy to pull off, inexpensive, and can show big savings. But as more and more customers replace traditional bulbs, utilities must work harder to find savings.

So as more efficiency is captured, the cost of further savings rises.

The average U.S. retail price of electricity is about $0.104/kWh. LBNL's research examined the cost performance of utility energy efficiency programs, utilizing data from almost 8,800 programs across 41 states between 2009 and 2015. It was the "most comprehensive effort yet to quantify the cost of saving electricity through efficiency programs," researchers said. They concluded the average cost was $0.025/kWh.

But the cost of saving electricity "varied significantly" among regions of the country. In the Midwest, the cost dipped to $0.015/kWh; in the Northeast, it rose to $0.033/kWh. The South and West were in line with the national average.

In all, 16 states showed efficiency costs of $0.02/kWh or less.

This tended to be true of states that were "new to energy efficiency, ... or had program design restrictions that limited savings acquisition (e.g., caps on customer payback periods)," the study said.

On the flip side, five states had costs above $0.04/kWh: Florida and four Northeast states.

The study noted the Northeast states have "relatively high electricity prices, extensive histories in pursuing energy savings and strong policy commitments (e.g., statutory mandates to acquire all cost-effective energy efficiency or meet specified energy savings targets). Thus, they tend to have greater market saturation for efficiency measures and have mined more of the lowest cost savings opportunities."Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The most expensive customer segment, for a variety of reasons, was low-income households, where the costs reached $0.105/kWh.

In low-income focused efficiency programs, researchers pointed out that program administrators typically pay the full cost of measures, and see higher costs due to poor home and safety conditions.

Commercial and industrial programs saw average costs of $0.025/kWh, with three types of programs making up almost three-quarters of of the sector's savings: rebates for custom retrofits, prescriptive measures and new construction. According to LBNL, those programs show average costs from $0.019/kWh to $0.026/kWh.

Heat pumps – heating and cooling systems that run entirely on electricity – have been getting a lot of attention recently. They’ve been called the “most overlooked climate solution” and “an answer to heat waves.” And the technology is finally experiencing a global boom in popularity. Last year, 117 million units were installed worldwide, up from 90 million in 2010. As temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions rise, heat pumps, which can be easily powered by renewable energy, promise to provide a pathway to carbon-free home heating. Environmental activist Bill McKibben even suggested sending heat pumps to Europe to help wean the continent off Russian natural gas.

But despite this global surge in popularity, heat pumps in the U.S. are laboring under a misconception that has plagued them for decades: That if the temperature falls to below 30 or even 40 degrees Fahrenheit, their technology simply doesn’t work. “Do heat pumps work in cold weather” is even a trending question on Google.

It’s a narrative that Andy Meyer, a senior program manager for the independent state agency Efficiency Maine, has spent the past decade debunking for residents in one of the U.S.’s coldest states.

“There were two types of people in Maine in 2012,” he said. “Those who didn’t know what heat pumps were — and those who knew they didn’t work in the cold.” But while that concern may have been true years ago, he said, today “it’s not at all true for high-performance heat pumps.”

Air-source heat pumps — there are also geothermal heat pumps and water-source heat pumps — are poorly named and poorly understood. (According to one small 2020 study from the heating tech company Sealed, about 47 percent of homeowners in the U.S. Northeast had never even heard of heat pumps.) They are essentially reversible air conditioners: Like AC units, they can take heat from inside a home and pump it out to provide a cooling effect. But unlike air conditioners, they can also run backwards — drawing heat from outdoors and bringing it inside to warm a home.

That process of moving heat rather than creating it explains why heat pumps are mind-blowingly efficient. A gas furnace — which burns natural gas to create heat — can only reach around 95 percent efficiency. A heat pump can easily reach 300 or 400 percent efficiency; that is, it can make around 3 to 4 times as much energy as it consumes.

Years ago, the technology really only worked in mild climates. The early generation of heat pumps were installed mostly in southern states that needed air conditioning and just a little bit of extra warmth in the winter. “They really gained traction in areas where it wasn’t cold,” said Ben Schoenbauer, a senior research engineer at the Center for Energy and Environment, or CEE, in Minnesota.

But over the past decade or so, heating companies began developing a new generation of heat pumps with “inverter-driven variable-speed compressors” — a mouthful of a term that essentially gives the heat pump the ability to more quickly transport heat from frigid outdoor air.

Soon, high-performance heat pumps were being produced that could warm a home even when outdoor temperatures were down to -31 degrees Fahrenheit. (Even in extreme sub-zero temperatures, there is still some amount of heat in outdoor air.) A heat pump’s efficiency does go down as it gets colder, but even in subzero temperatures high-end units can be over 100 percent efficient. And in recent years, some of the country’s coldest states have gone all-in on the technology. According to a study in Environmental Research Letters, heat pumps could reduce CO2 emissions in 70 percent of homes across the country; homes heated by inefficient electric heaters or fuel oil could particularly benefit. Utilities and states have started offering rebates for consumers to install heat pumps, even in colder states like New York, Massachusetts, or Maine. Many environmental groups and state agencies are working hard to convince residents that top-of-the-line heat pumps can function well in cold climates.

Efficiency Maine has been part of that trend. Early on, Meyer said, residents were deeply skeptical that a simple electric device could keep them warm in the state’s frigid conditions. But Efficiency Maine recruited installers, ran social media and radio ads, and released studies and reports showing that heat pumps could work. “It started in Northern Maine — a very close, tightly knit community,” Meyer said. Once a few people installed heat pumps, they began telling their friends, who told their friends, and so on. So far, Meyer says, Efficiency Maine has offered rebates for 100,000 heat pumps — in a state where there are less than 600,000 occupied housing units. Maine now has a higher rate of heat pump installations per capita than most European countries.

Other organizations are doing similar work. The Center for Energy and Environment in Minnesota has formed a collaborative with utilities to help boost heat pump adoption in the state; they also maintain a list of contractors who have been vetted to install the systems. The Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit, has resources for installers and consumers, including a list of air-source heat pumps that operate well under the climate conditions of Northeast states. Some heat pumps are even being installed in Alaska, where average winter temperatures hover around a high of 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of the benefits of installing heat pumps is cost-savings. In Maine, many homes are heated with fuel oil or propane. At current prices, Meyer says, running a heat pump costs half as much as oil and one-third as much as propane. According to Efficiency Maine’s analysis, that can save homeowners up to thousands of dollars in annual energy costs. A 2017 study by CEE similarly found that installing heat pumps in Minnesota could save residents between $349 and $764 per year, compared to heating with a standard electric or propane furnace.

There are some caveats. Lacey Tan, a manager for the carbon-free buildings program at the energy think tank RMI, says there is still a price premium for heat pumps: Some installers aren’t yet comfortable with how they work and try to reduce their risk by increasing up-front costs. In cold climates, some homes may want to have a back-up heating system for extremely frigid days or in the event of a power outage. (In Maine, Meyer says many homeowners use wood stoves as back-up for their heat pumps.)

But many experts believe more and more cold-weather heat pumps will be sold as homeowners learn about the new advances in the technology. Meyer says that Mainers who install heat pumps naturally begin to share their experience with friends and family. “We have over 100,000 salespeople who have already gotten heat pumps,” he said jokingly. “Not bad for a state where they ‘don’t work in the cold.’”

US President Joe Biden signed the big climate bill – the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – earlier this week. Electrek spoke with Dan Gayer, JD, CPA, a senior manager in the tax practice at Baker Newman Noyes, about how homeowners can claim tax credits and rebates as they work to achieve energy efficiency and lower their energy bills.

Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit

Changes to the former Nonbusiness Energy Property credit, now renamed the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, will take effect on January 1, 2023.

The old credit was worth 10% of the costs of installing insulation, windows, doors, roofing, and other energy-saving improvements. The old $500 lifetime limitation still applies for the rest of 2022.

From 2023, a $1,200 annual tax credit limit will replace the old $500 lifetime limit. The tax credit will be equal to 30% of the costs for all eligible home improvements made during the year. It has also been expanded to cover things such as biomass stoves and boilers, electric panels, and home energy audits.

Beginning in 2023, annual limits for particular types of qualifying alterations were improved. For example, it’s $250 for an exterior door, or $500 for all exterior doors; $600 for exterior windows and skylights; and $2,000 for heat pump and heat pump hot water heaters for homeowners who don’t qualify for the rebate due to higher household income – see below. (The latter $2,000 is the exception to the $1,200 annual limit.)

Residential Clean Energy Credit

The Residential Clean Energy Credit, which is now extended through 2034, was previously called the Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit.

The credit amount for installing clean household energy such as solar, wind, or geothermal has been raised from 26% to 30% from 2022 to 2032. It then falls to 26% for 2033 and 22% for 2034.

Gayer says of the timing of household solar tax credits:
On the solar credits, both the residential credits and business investment tax credits are back to 30% effective for solar equipment placed in service any time after January 1, 2022.
Gayer went on to explain how homeowners can secure tax credits for both the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit and the Residential Clean Energy Credit under the IRA umbrella:
The mechanics of claiming this credit appear to be the same in 2022 and 2023 as they were in the past – the credit is claimed on the purchaser’s individual income tax return. The purchaser does not need to submit specific documentation with the tax return, but should retain documentation as part of their tax records so they can prove they purchased eligible property in the event of an IRS audit.

Vendors should be able to provide purchasers with this type of documentation. In 2024 and future years, manufacturers need to create a specific product identification number for each qualifying product they sell, and purchasers must include this number on their tax returns to claim the credit.
August 20 update: Some readers have asked for battery storage clarification, and quite rightly so. Here’s the lowdown: Before the IRA, it was 26% tax credit for battery storage charged with onsite solar only. Under the IRA, it follows the same timeline as solar, starting at 30% tax credit from 2023 (see above). But the big change is that the tax credit will now be available from 2023 for storage batteries with a capacity of at least 3 kWh, regardless of energy source.

High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program

The IRA’s $4.28 billion High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program will provide an upfront rebate of up to $8,000 to install heat pumps that can both heat and cool homes. It also provides a rebate of up to $1,750 for heat pump water heaters.

There’s also a rebate of up to $840 to offset the cost of a heat-pump clothes dryer or an electric stove, including induction ranges.

If a home needs an electrical panel upgrade to support new electrical appliances, then there’s up to a $4,000 rebate to help with that. There’s also a rebate of up to $2,500 for electrical wiring improvements.

And for one of the most cost-efficient and quickest ways to make a home more energy-efficient – insulation and sealing – there’s a rebate of up to $1,600.

Homeowners will be able to collect a maximum of $14,000 total in rebates. Household income cannot exceed 150% of the area median income as calculated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to qualify. (Here’s an Area Median Income Lookup Tool from Fannie Mae to see what your limit is.) According to the bill itself, rebates start after December 31, 2022.

Gayer elaborated on the details of how the rebates will work:
The Inflation Reduction Act does not give specifics on how this rebate will be administered – the details here are left to the Treasury Department to issue general guidelines and then provide grants to state governments, who are the ones charged with actually implementing the program and giving out the rebates.

The intent here is to provide rebates to qualified purchasers at the point of sale, so this will be a direct discount on the purchase price rather than a credit claimed on a tax return.

Given how much still needs to happen at both the federal and state levels to write more detailed rules and get the necessary administrative procedures set up, it seems unlikely that this rebate program will be up and running until sometime in 2023, and the exact details of the program may be different in every state.
The rebate program will run through September 30, 2031, and the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit will run through 2032.