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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 223 / Tuesday, November 23, 2021 / Rules and Regulations burdens. 42 U.S.C. 6295o2Bi DOE must make this determination after receiving comments on the proposed standard, and by considering, to the greatest extent practicable, the following seven statutory factors:
1 The economic impact of the standard on manufacturers and consumers of the products subject to the standard;
2 The savings in operating costs throughout the estimated average life of the covered products in the type or class compared to any increase in the price, initial charges for, or maintenance expenses of the covered products that are likely to result from the standard;
3 The total projected amount of energy or as applicable, water savings likely to result directly from the standard;
4 Any lessening of the utility or the performance of the covered products likely to result from the standard;
5 The impact of any lessening of competition, as determined in writing by the Attorney General, that is likely to result from the standard;
6 The need for national energy and water conservation; and 7 Other factors the Secretary of Energy Secretary considers relevant.

42 U.S.C. 6295o2BiIVII
As discussed in the October 2016
final determination, DOE found that amended standards for vented heaters would not be economically justified under the considerations of the seven factors prescribed in EPCA. 81 FR
71325, 7132871329 Oct. 17, 2016. For the determination in this document, DOE has considered the previous evaluation of amended standards in the October 2016 final determination.

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2. Unvented Heaters In response to the December 2020
NOPD, the Joint Advocates and NEEA
stated that the technology to eliminate standing pilot lights i.e., electronic ignition is readily available and low cost and urged DOE to consider standards specifically for unvented gas heaters that would ban standing pilot lights. Joint Advocates, No. 16 at p. 1
2; NEEA, No. 20 at p. 2 The Joint Advocates further stated that in the technical support document TSD for the hearth products NOPR that DOE
published on February 9, 2015, DOE
found that electronic ignition systems operate an average of 3.94 hours per year at an estimated 50 W, could be manufactured at an incremental price of approximately $80 and have a PBP and LCC savings of 2.9 years and $327, respectively. Joint Advocates, No. 16 at p. 12; see also chapter 8 of the TSD to the February 2015 NOPR 80 FR 7082
Feb. 9, 2015 NEEA also referenced the February 2015 NOPR for hearth products stating that eliminating
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standing pilots could save an average of $165 over the life of the product. 80 FR
7082, 7084. NEEA, No. 20 at p. 2
The CA IOUs and Joint Advocates stated that Appendix G, which does not require the energy consumption of the standing pilot light to be measured if there are instructions for turning the pilot light off when the heater is not in use, may not account for actual consumer behavior and stated that DOE
did not provide evidence to support the assumption that consumers will follow the instructions in manufacturerprovided literature and urged DOE to conduct further research. CA IOUs, No.
17 at p. 3; Joint Advocates, No. 16 at p.
1 The Joint Advocates stated that in the February 2015 NOPR for hearth products DOE analysis showed that 40
percent of the consumers of hearth products leave standing pilot lights on all year and that the average operating hours for standing pilot lights is close to 4,000 hours per year. Joint Advocates, No. 16 at p. 1
Section 2.3.1 of Appendix G states that measurement of the pilot light input rate is not required for unvented heaters where the pilot light is designed to be turned off by the user when the heater is not in use i.e., for units where turning the control to the OFF position will shut off the gas supply to the burners and the pilot light and instruction to turn off the unit is provided on the heater near the gas control value e.g., by label. Section 2.3.1 of Appendix G requires for unvented heaters with a pilot light that is not designed to be turned off when not in use, or that does not include an instruction to do so, the pilot light input rate must be measured, but is not used in the calculation of rated output in section 3.4 of Appendix G. As explained in the final rule published December 17, 2012, that addressed standby and off mode energy use for unvented heaters, these provisions exclude from the standby mode and off mode requirements a standing pilot light if there are means to disconnect the electric or gas power source when not in use and instructions to do so are clearly visible. 77 FR 74559, 74563
December 2012 final rule. DOE
explained that the exclusion is identical to that applicable to manuallycontrolled vented heaters 12 and that DOE believes this exclusion should also apply to unvented heaters so equipped.
Id.
12 Section 1.21 of Appendix O defines a manually controlled vented heater as either gas or oil fueled vented heaters equipped without thermostats.

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The discussion in the December 2012
final rule and the reference to a comparable application for manuallycontrolled vented heaters indicates that the exclusion in section 2.3.1 of Appendix G was to exclude manuallycontrolled heaters i.e., without thermostats in which the burner and pilot light are turned off when the consumer turns the unit off. As a manually-controlled heater operates only when heat is desired by the consumer, all energy use is useful to the consumer. However, the exclusion in section 2.3.1 of Appendix G is more broadly written than the similar exclusion in section 3.5.2 of Appendix O for manually-controlled vented heaters and applies to products that operate with a thermostat or that are manually-controlled. Further, DOE has found that there are manuallycontrolled unvented gas heaters on the market 13 that have both a fully off mode i.e., turning the unit off will turn off the gas to the burner and pilot light and a mode in which the pilot stays on when heat from the burner is not desired.
Such products meet the exclusion criteria in section 2.3.1 of Appendix G
but also may not be turned fully off by a consumer when heat is not desired.
DOE agrees that amendments to Appendix G to limit the exclusion to unvented heaters that are controlled with a thermostat or manuallycontrolled unvented heaters with both a fully off mode and a pilot on mode may be appropriate. DOE intends to address this issue further in the ongoing test procedure rulemaking for unvented heaters.14
There may be the potential for energy savings if consumer behavior regarding the operation of the standing pilot lights for unvented heaters is examined further. However, the values stated by the Joint Advocates cannot be used directly as hearth products, as defined in the February 2015 NOPR, but may be used differently than unvented heaters.
At the time of this analysis, DOE has not received information regarding consumer behavior for unvented heaters, but will continue to evaluate in subsequent rulemakings.
The Joint Gas Utilities stated that unvented gas heaters are required by the consensus safety standard ANSI
13 For example, the installation and operations manual for an unvented gas heater that can be manually-controlled and has fully off and pilot modes can be found at: https
images.thdstatic.com/catalog/pdfImages/2e/
2e682fa1-3dba-4905-8cb5-785611455daa.pdf.
14 DOE published an NOPR regarding test procedures for DHE. 86 FR 20053 April 16, 2021.
The docket for the test procedure NOPR is available at: www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EERE-2019-BTTP-0003.

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