CEC Approves Water Appliance Efficiency Standards

Appliance efficiency standards, which could save the state more than 2.4 billion gallons of water in the first year alone, were approved during the California Energy Commission’s most recent business meeting.

The new standards adopted on Aug. 12 also would eliminate the use of 20 million therms of natural gas and 132 GWh of electricity the first year the regulations are in effect, according to the Energy Commission.

Over a decade, the water efficiency standards are estimated to save up to 24 billion gallons by restricting all showerheads to a maximum per minute flow rate of 2 gallons. That is half a gallon lower than the current California standard of 2.5 gallons per minute.

The new standard applies to fixed and handheld showerheads plus horizontal body sprayers manufactured as of July 1, 2016.

Additionally, the standard for showerheads goes to a maximum flow rate of 1.8 gallons per minute beginning July 1, 2018, something the Energy Commission says would be the most stringent standard in the country.

By 2029, the year that faucet and showerhead stock in the state is fully replaced, the regulations would have a combined annual savings of about 38 billion gallons of water, 202 million therms of natural gas and 1,322 GWh of electricity, according to the Energy Commission. That equates to about $702 billion in savings to California ratepayers.

The new efficiency standards are in response to California’s severe ongoing drought, which is in its fourth year. On April 1, Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order containing several measures for state agencies to take to preserve water, including a directive for the Energy Commission to adopt standards that improve the water and energy efficiency of water appliances, including toilets, urinals and faucets.

The executive order gave the commission emergency authority to adopt the standards immediately.

In response to Brown’s order, the Energy Commission on April 8 passed emergency regulations establishing efficiency standards for new covered toilets, urinals and faucets beginning Jan. 1, 2016.

Under the regulations, the estimated 443 billion gallons a year currently consumed through toilets, faucets and urinals in California, would be reduced by 10.3 billion gallons in the first year and 730 billion gallons over 10 years.

In other news, the Energy Commission approved at last week’s meeting a $2.4 million grant to the South Coast Air Quality Management District to build and test seven- zero-emission, hybrid fuel-cell, freight-size trucks to transport cargo at the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports.

Additionally, a $1.2 million grant was awarded to Concurrent Technologies Corp. for a program to expand testing of the entire plug-in electric vehicle fleet at Los Angeles Air Force Base and upgrade software to determine if vehicle-to-grid technology can be applied to larger fleets and to vehicles at homes.

The money for both grants comes from the commission’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.

The commission also approved a $1.8 million loan to the City of Santa Cruz to install energy efficient interior and exterior lights and improve a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

The money for the loan comes from the Energy Conservation Assistance Act, a zero or low interest loan program providing funds to public entities.

The commission last week also received an update on the status of the New Solar Homes Partnership, an eight-year-old program that provides financial incentives to encourage installing solar energy systems on new residential construction.

Between Sept. 1, 2014, and Aug. 3 of this year, 27,768 solar home systems were installed in the state at a total cost of nearly $73 million, adding about 61 MW of energy to the grid, according to Energy Commission staff.

Since it was launched in 2007, the New Solar Homes program as a whole has resulted in about 41,000 solar systems at a total cost of $213 million, and has added 123 MW to the grid, according to commission data. —Mark Edward Nero

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CEC Approves Water Appliance Efficiency Standards

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