News from AWHI and our partners

Nominate someone for an Excellence in Water Heating Award

Do you know individuals and companies whose excellent work is leading the way to significant advancements and installations of HPWHs or increasing equitable access to HPWHs in homes and businesses? Tell us about them! Nominate individuals, organizations, products, or programs in one of the following five categories. 

• Commercial HPWH Market Transformer  

• Residential HPWH Market Transformer 

• Star HPWH Installer  

• HPWH New Construction Excellence

• HPWH Research or Equity Program Excellence

Refrigerants in HPWHs and upcoming changes

An important milestone is coming up at the start of 2025 to reduce refrigerants' contribution to the greenhouse effect. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is mandating that all air conditioners and heat pumps manufactured after January 1, 2025, use refrigerants with Global Warming Potential (GWP) less than 750. This means that manufacturers must replace the popular R410-A (far exceeding that threshold with a GWP of 2,088). One common lower-GWP replacement will likely be R454B, one of the A2L class of refrigerants. “A” indicates low toxicity, while “2L” indicates low (but not zero) flammability. Other emerging refrigerants are R290, also known as propane, and R744, also known as CO2, which is already in some HPWHs today.

Refrigerants in heat pump water heaters absorb heat from the surrounding air and channel it into a hot water storage tank. Because HPWHs transfer heat rather than creating it, they are super-efficient, operating at more than 300% efficiency! However, refrigerants leaking from the many products that use them cause varying levels of climate damage. Read more about refrigerants and their impacts on climate change in a CleanTechnica article by NBI's Noah Gabriel.

Engage with AWHI at upcoming meetings

Times are noted in Pacific Time Zone

AWHI All Stakeholder Meeting

Thursday, September 5, 10:00-11:30 am 
This AWHI quarterly meeting brings together working groups and other interested industry individuals to discuss the transformation of various water heating markets. Our September meeting will have a special focus on Distributors. Let us know about your interest and receive a calendar invitation to join us.

Working Group Meetings 

Sign up for calendar invitations and links to join regularly held working group meetings. Working groups include Residential, Commercial, Connectivity, and Equity. 

Join the Equity Working Group
We must ensure energy efficiency, decarbonization, and building electrification are equitable and accessible to all communities. Meetings are planned for the last Wednesday of each month from 10:00-11:00 am. Join the Equity Working Group meetings to collaborate and support inclusive solutions. 

What makes a successful Commercial Heat Pump Water Heater Program?

The team on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded SCALING UP: Demonstrating Risk Reduction and Cost Compression for Commercial HPWHs project is investigating this question. We invite you to respond to this very short market research survey today. Answering the questions will take only 90 seconds and is open through 9/4/2024. We value your input!

Southeast Heat Pump Water Heater Adoption Pilot

The Southeast Heat Pump Water Heater Adoption Pilot, a collaboration involving Ferguson, A. O. Smith, ENERGY STAR® and Georgia Power, aims to increase sales of heat pump water heaters across Georgia starting 9/1/2024. The initiative offers contractors heat pump education and rebates along with other incentives. The pilot is focused on supporting dual-trade contractors and emphasizes efficiency upgrades rather than fuel source changes.

Ferguson is offering a $300 instant discount to all licensed contractors purchasing an A. O. Smith HPWH throughout Georgia until 11/30/2024. Questions? Please contact Emily-Anne Walker with Ferguson.

Georgia Power’s residential energy efficiency team is offering a $300 bonus to contractors who install qualifying HPWHs for Georgia Power residential customers. Installing contractors must include their contact information and W-9 on the customer’s rebate application to ensure they receive the $300 post-install bonus check. Questions? Please contact Rachel Jones with Georgia Power’s program implementer, Utility Energy Services.

Industrial Heat Pumps: Manufacturer’s Roundtable
Wednesday, September 11, 10:00 am

The industrial sector is the second largest consumer of energy in the U.S., much of it going towards generating steam or hot water for manufacturing. Led in partnership with New Buildings Institute and the California Energy Design Assistance (CEDA) program, this roundtable is the place to learn how industrial heat pumps are stepping in to help reduce carbon emissions. Discover how heat pumps provide incredibly efficient industrial heating. Save your spot. Register today!

2024 ENERGY STAR Products Partner Meeting

Tuesday, September 17 – Thursday, September 19

The EPA announced the 2024 ENERGY STAR Products Partner Meeting. The three-day meeting will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota and feature informational sessions, a product Expo, and networking opportunities with a broad range of attendees—everything you need to position your programs and products for success in the transition towards an efficient, clean energy future. Please contact partnermeeting@energystar.gov if you have questions.

HPWH Product Council Meeting
Tuesday, September 24 at 10:30 am
Join us for this online Product Council meeting, where these topics will be discussed.

Central HPWH Trainings for Multifamily: D+R will highlight different ways to engage the market and deliver training. Additionally, there will be a Central HPWH overview tour of applications, system components, delivery methods and tools. The moderators will then take a deeper dive into the Splash Blocks Nyle e360 installation in Portland, OR, and wrap up with a look at on-demand and instructor-led training for Central HPWHs in multifamily settings. 

Heat Pump Water Heater Installation Tool: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will introduce the DOE’s new web-based tool that offers detailed information on how to size, select, and install electric HPWHs in water heater replacement scenarios. The tool provides installers, installer call center staff, sales associates (retail and wholesale), and do-it-yourself homeowners with customized guidance to address key HPWH installation challenges. The presentation will also discuss the tool's application and adaptability to different water heater locations, as well as provide specific guidance to help installers overcome common challenges. 

The meeting link is available here. If you have any questions, please reach out to productcouncil@neea.org.

ENERGY STAR Heat Pump Water Heater Market Acceleration Guide

ENERGY STAR developed this guide with the input of experienced program designers and implementers, and leading water heating experts, including manufacturers, installers, and distributors. It provides a framework for developing and implementing HPHW programs with strategies and best practices that have been proven to work. Also accompanying the guide are tools, assets, case studies, and other resources that ENERGY STAR and its partners developed to support programmatic efforts to improve efficiency, meet climate goals, address inequity, and add value to utility assets through the deployment of HPHWs with demand response capabilities. 

ENERGY STAR Best Practices: Installing Heat Pump Water Heaters 

This is a new installation guide to assist contractors with the proper installation of ENERGY STAR certified HPWHs. 

New England Heat Pump Accelerator

A recently funded multistate market initiative will expedite the adoption of cold-climate heat pumps across single-family and multifamily residential buildings in the Northeast. This effort is being funded through the EPA's Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) created under the Inflation Reduction Act to tackle climate change, improve air quality, and advance environmental justice. The new program has three key priorities: 

With the influx of funding expected near the end of 2024, the New England Heat Pump Accelerator aims to solve many of the issues on the supply side. In addition to training and recruiting new HVAC contractors, they will spur the local market by offering “midstream incentives” to wholesale distributors. The plan will provide financial incentives to the top five big wholesale distributors, who sell more than 50% of the region's heat pumps, to stock more products and sell heat pumps to contractors at lower prices. These cost-savings will then be passed on to customers, and contractors will be more likely to suggest installing a heat pump HVAC system or water heater. Read more about the program in this article by WBUR, Boston’s NPR News station.

Commentary: Encouraging heat pump technology for San Joaquin Valley residents, published by Energy News Network. Resolving hidden financial costs paves way for heat pump adoption. The need to prioritize the installation of heat pumps in California’s low-income households is clear. 8/5/2024 

Buying or Installing a Heat Pump Water Heater? Check Out This Tool, published by CleanTechnica. To provide homeowners and installers with the latest information, the HPWH Installation Tool, developed at PNNL, has been released by the DOE for public use. This new resource provides guidance for sizing and selecting residential HPWHs, focusing on overcoming installation barriers. 7/25/2024 

Heat pump water heaters: transforming contractor profits with sustainable solutions, published by Plumbing & Mechanical. As sustainability continues to drive innovation in the plumbing industry, HPWHs represent a compelling opportunity for contractors to differentiate themselves and meet the evolving needs of their clients. By embracing this technology, plumbing professionals can not only contribute to environmental conservation but also position themselves as leaders in a rapidly changing market. 6/17/2024 

Five of the Biggest Heat Pump Challenges and How to Solve Them, published by Bloomberg. A wave of startups are scrambling to tackle the barriers stopping heat pumps from hitting the big time. Heat pumps were invented in the 1850s, and they’ve been used in houses and businesses since the middle of the 20th century. While they’re very efficient at heating and cooling, that doesn’t mean they aren’t due for an upgrade. 6/13/2024 

Inside Home Systems: Cut Carbon and Costs with a Heat Pump Water Heater, published by Realtor Magazine. Heat pump water heaters are an energy-efficient solution to gas and electric pumps that could save homeowners money. More home buyers than ever are choosing energy-efficient heat pump water heaters over fossil-fueled water heaters. In 2022, American homeowners installed over 4 million HPWHs, and sales of HPWHs increased by 26%. 6/11/2024 

One Home Builder Grows the Entire Heat Pump Water Heater Market by 30%, published by CleanTechnica. Clayton, a leading single-family home builder, recently made big environmental news by converting nearly all 42,000 modern manufactured homes it builds annually to be certified ENERGY STAR and Zero Energy Ready Homes. These certifications mean that their manufactured homes will be much more efficient, save homeowners money on their utility bills (up to 50%) and provide premium energy-efficient appliances. 6/11/2024 

When to Upsize a Water Heater, by This Old House. Plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey and team diagnose and solve a homeowner’s lack of hot water. HPWHs combine the age-old technologies of electrical elements and heat pumps to remove the heat energy from a space and apply it to water. This combination allows them to run for a fraction of the cost of an electric resistance water heater while providing more hot water. 

Find out more about AWHI Working Groups

Thank you to our supporters!

AWHI is a national collaboration between building owners, utilities, federal agencies, state and local government, engineers, educators, manufacturers, and the supply chain with stakeholders from over 400 entities. We invite your organization to join the AWHI supporters below in supporting and guiding this national market transformation effort.