The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday proposed energy efficiency standards on water heaters it said would save consumers $11.4 billion on energy and water bills annually.
The standards on residential water heater efficiency, which are required by Congress, have not been updated in 13 years. Water heating is responsible for roughly 13% of both annual residential energy use and consumer utility costs, the DOE said.
or, you know, just force all new construction to have hot water on demand systems and then offer a large tax incentive to upgrade. it worked for the solar industry, no reason it cant work for hot water too. water tanks as hot water heaters is early bronze age tech.
Not great timing with the current state of the electric grid. Water tanks get to act as heat batteries at least. And outside of new construction, lots of homes dont even have an adequate electric service for instant heaters alongside everything else.
hence the “new construction” part.