§ 429.17 - Water heaters.

§ 429.17 Water heaters.

Cross Reference

Link to an amendment published at 89 FR 37941, May 6, 2024.

Note 1 to § 429.17:

Prior to February 17, 2023, certification reports must be submitted as required either in this section or 10 CFR 429.17 as it appears in the 10 CFR parts 200 through 499 edition revised as of January 1, 2022. On or after February 17, 2023, certification reports must be submitted as required in this section.

(a) Determination of represented value.

(1) Manufacturers must determine the represented value for each water heater by applying an AEDM in accordance with 10 CFR 429.70 or by testing for the uniform energy factor, in conjunction with the applicable sampling provisions as follows:

(i) If the represented value is determined through testing, the general requirements of 10 CFR 429.11 are applicable; and

(ii) For each basic model selected for testing, a sample of sufficient size shall be randomly selected and tested to ensure that—

(A) Any represented value of the estimated annual operating cost or other measure of energy consumption of a basic model for which consumers would favor lower values shall be greater than or equal to the higher of:

(1) The mean of the sample, where:

and, x̄ is the sample mean; n is the number of samples; and x_i is the ith sample;

Or,

(2) The upper 95-percent confidence limit (UCL) of the true mean divided by 1.10, where:

And x̄ is the sample mean; s is the sample standard deviation; n is the number of samples; and t_0.95 is the t statistic for a 95-percent one-tailed confidence interval with n-1 degrees of freedom (from Appendix A).

(B) Any represented value of the uniform energy factor, or other measure of energy consumption of a basic model for which consumers would favor higher values shall be less than or equal to the lower of:

(1) The mean of the sample, where:

and, x is the sample mean; n is the number of samples; and x_i is the ith sample;

Or,

(2) The lower 95-percent confidence limit (LCL) of the true mean divided by 0.90, where:

And x̄ is the sample mean; s is the sample standard deviation; n is the number of samples; and t_0.95 is the t statistic for a 95-percent one-tailed confidence interval with n-1 degrees of freedom (from Appendix A).

(C) Any represented value of the rated storage volume must be equal to the mean of the measured storage volumes of all the units within the sample. Any represented value of the effective storage volume must be equal to the mean of the effective storage volumes of all the units within the sample.

(D) Any represented value of first-hour rating or maximum gallons per minute (GPM) must be equal to the mean of the measured first-hour ratings or measured maximum GPM ratings, respectively, of all the units within the sample.

(E) For an electric storage water heater that has a permanent mode or setting in which it is capable of heating and storing water above 135 °F, where permanent mode or setting means a mode of operation that is continuous and does not require any external consumer intervention to maintain for longer than 120 hours, except for those that meet the definition of “heat pump-type” water heater at § 430.2 of this chapter, whose rated storage volumes are less than 20 gallons or greater than 55 gallons, or that are only capable of heating the stored water above 135 °F in response to instructions received from a utility or third-party demand-response program, the following applies:

(1) To demonstrate compliance with the energy conservation standards in § 430.32(d)(1) of this chapter, any represented value of uniform energy factor shall be determined based on testing in accordance with section 5.1.1 of appendix E to subpart B of 10 CFR part 430.

(2) To demonstrate compliance with the energy conservation standards in § 430.32(d)(2) of this chapter, any represented value of uniform energy factor shall be determined based on high temperature testing in accordance with section 5.1.2 of appendix E to subpart B of 10 CFR part 430.

(b) Certification reports.

(1) The requirements of 10 CFR 429.12 are applicable to water heaters; and

(2) Pursuant to 10 CFR 429.12(b)(13), a certification report shall include the following public, product-specific information:

(i) For storage-type water heater basic models: The uniform energy factor (UEF, rounded to the nearest 0.01), the rated storage volume in gallons (rounded to the nearest 1 gal), the first-hour rating in gallons (gal, rounded to the nearest 1 gal), and the recovery efficiency in percent (%, rounded to the nearest 1%);

(ii) For instantaneous-type water heater basic models: The uniform energy factor (UEF, rounded to the nearest 0.01), the rated storage volume in gallons (gal, rounded to the nearest 1 gal), the maximum gallons per minute (gpm, rounded to the nearest 0.1 gpm), and the recovery efficiency in percent (%, rounded to the nearest 1%); and

(iii) For grid-enabled water heater basic models: The uniform energy factor (UEF, rounded to the nearest 0.01), the rated storage volume in gallons (gal, rounded to the nearest 1 gal), the first-hour rating in gallons (gal, rounded to the nearest 1 gal), the recovery efficiency in percent (%, rounded to the nearest 1%), a declaration that the model is a grid-enabled water heater, whether it is equipped at the point of manufacture with an activation lock, and whether it bears a permanent label applied by the manufacturer that advises purchasers and end-users of the intended and appropriate use of the product.

(c) Reporting of annual shipments for grid-enabled water heaters. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 6295(e)(6)(C)(i), manufacturers of grid-enabled water heaters must report the total number of grid-enabled water heater units shipped for sale in the U.S. by the manufacturer for the previous calendar year (i.e., January 1st through December 31st), as well as the calendar year that the shipments cover, starting on or before May 1, 2023, and annually on or before May 1 each year thereafter. This information shall be reported separately from the certification report required under paragraph (b)(2) of this section, and must be submitted to DOE in accordance with the submission procedures set forth in § 429.12(h). DOE will consider the annual reported shipments to be confidential business information without the need for the manufacturer to request confidential treatment of the information pursuant to § 429.7(c).

[81 FR 96235, Dec. 29, 2016, as amended at 87 FR 43977, July 22, 2022; 89 FR 37941 May 6, 2024]