Another last-minute Biden appliance regulation – this time tankless water heaters

At this point, it is easier to name the major home appliances that have not been hit with bad regulations from the Biden administration – televisions are off the hook. But for just about everything else, Department of Energy (DOE) bureaucrats are going all out with anti-consumer rules, including ones for furnaces, air conditioners, washing machines and dryers, light bulbs, refrigerators, ceiling fans, dishwashers, and stoves. And with the administration’s days counting down, they’re still trying to push more unwanted regulations out the door, most recently with a final rule cracking down on gas-fired instantaneous (tankless) water heaters. 

Most homeowners use water heaters that store hot water in a tank for later use, and these were the subject of a costly new DOE efficiency standard  earlier this year.  However, some homeowners prefer tankless water heaters (DOE calls them ‘instantaneous water heaters’) that have no storage tank and instead heat the water as needed. But now, this choice will be rendered prohibitively expensive for many homeowners thanks to DOE’s newly released energy efficiency regulation for them.

Even DOE’s often-rosy calculations estimate its rule will add $231 to the cost of a new tankless model. But, according to the American Gas Association, manufacturers estimate the real number will be closer to $450. Installation costs may also rise. If so, the rule will join many others that raise the up-front cost of appliances more than is ever likely to be earned back in the form of energy savings.

Ironically, one of the advantages of tankless water heaters is energy efficiency relative to conventional water heaters – they provide hot water only when needed and avoid having a full tank of heated water constantly held in reserve. Nonetheless, the bottom-line effect of the rule is that tankless water heaters will become prohibitively costly for many, if not most, prospective buyers.

The rule cannot be justified by consumer benefits – there aren’t any. Better to let homeowners decide for themselves what type of water heater to choose. But, like so many other Biden appliance rules, it is justified in part by the claimed climate change benefits – just one more Green New Deal-style measure that hurts the American people.

Fortunately, the incoming Trump administration hates appliance regulations as much as the current administration loves them. Let’s hope the tankless water heater rule gets the ax under the Congressional Review Act.