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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.1 PURPOSE OF THE DOCUMENT ................................................................................. 1-1

1.2 OVERVIEW OF STANDARDS FOR BOILERS........................................................... 1-1

1.3 PROCESS FOR SETTING ENERGY CONSERVATION STANDARDS ................... 1-2

1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE DOCUMENT............................................................................ 1-5

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.3.1 Analyses Under the Process Rule ........................................................................ 1-4
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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 PURPOSE OF THE DOCUMENT

This document is a stand-alone report that provides the technical analyses and results 

supporting the information presented in the notice of data availability (NODA) for residential 

boilers. This document reports on the activities and analyses conducted in the period preceding 

the notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) of this rulemaking.

1.2 OVERVIEW OF STANDARDS FOR BOILERS

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is initiating a rulemaking to consider amending 

the energy conservation standards for residential boilers, as required under the Energy Policy and 

Conservation Act.

Title III, Part B of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA), Pub. L. 94-

163 (42 U.S.C. 6291-6309, as codified), sets forth a variety of provisions designed to improve 

energy efficiency and established the Energy Conservation Program for Consumer Products 

Other Than Automobiles, a program covering most major household appliances and certain 

industrial and commercial equipment. The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987 

(NAECA), Pub. L. 100-12, amended EPCA to establish energy conservation standards for 

residential furnaces and boilers, as well as requirements to conduct two cycles of rulemaking to 

determine whether these standards should be amended. (42 U.S.C. 6295(f)) 

On November 19, 2007, DOE published a final rule revising the energy conservation 

standards for furnaces and boilers, which addressed the first required review of minimum 

standards for boilers under 42 U.S.C. 6295(f)(4)(B). 72 FR 65136. On December 19, 2007, the 

Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007), Pub. L. No. 110-140, was signed 

into law, which further revised the energy conservation standards for residential boilers. More 

specifically, EISA 2007 revised the minimum AFUE requirements for residential boilers and set 

several design requirements for each product class (42 U.S.C. 6295(f)(3)). EISA 2007 required 

compliance with the amended energy conservation standards for residential boilers beginning on 

September 1, 2012. 

On July 28, 2008, DOE published a final rule technical amendment to the 2007 furnaces 

and boilers final rule to codify the energy conservation standard levels, the design requirements, 

and compliance dates for residential boilers outlined EISA 2007. 73 FR 43611. For gas-fired 

hot water boilers, oil-fired hot water boilers, and electric hot water boilers, EISA 2007 requires 

that residential boilers manufactured after September 2012 have an automatic means for 

adjusting water temperature. 10 CFR 430.32(e)(2)(ii)-(iv). The automatic means for adjusting 

water temperature must automatically adjust the water temperature of the water supplied by the 
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boiler to ensure that an incremental change in the inferred heat load produces a corresponding 

incremental change in the temperature of the water supplied. EISA 2007 also disallows the use 

of constant-burning pilot lights in gas-fired hot water boilers and gas-fired steam boilers.

1.3 PROCESS FOR SETTING ENERGY CONSERVATION STANDARDS

Under EPCA, when DOE is studying new or amended standards, it must consider, to the 

greatest extent practicable, the following seven factors (42 U.S.C. 6295 (o)(2)(B)(i)):

1) the economic impact of the standard on the manufacturers and consumers of the affected 

products; 

2) the savings in operating costs throughout the estimated average life of the product 

compared to any increases in the initial cost or maintenance expense; 

3) the total projected amount of energy savings likely to result directly from the imposition 

of the standard; 

4) any lessening of the utility or the performance of the products likely to result from the 

imposition of 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 imposition of the standard; 

6) the need for national energy conservation; and 

7) other factors the Secretary considers relevant.

Other statutory requirements are set forth in 42 U.S.C. 6295 (o)(1)–(2)(A), (2)(B)(ii)–

(iii), and (3)–(4) and 42 U.S.C. 6316(e).

DOE considers interested party participation to be a very important part of the process for 

setting energy conservation standards. Through formal public notifications (i.e., Federal Register

notices), DOE actively encourages the participation and interaction of all interested parties 

during the comment period in each stage of the rulemaking. Beginning with the framework 

document and during subsequent comment periods, interactions among interested parties provide 

a balanced discussion of the information that is required for the standards rulemaking.

Before DOE determines whether or not to adopt a proposed energy conservation 

standard, it must first solicit comments on the proposed standard. (42 U.S.C. 6313(a)(6)(B)(i))

Any new or amended standard must be designed to achieve significant additional conservation of 

energy and be technologically feasible and economically justified. (42 U.S.C. 6313(a)(6)(A)) To 
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determine whether economic justification exists, DOE must review comments on the proposal 

and determine that the benefits of the proposed standard exceed its burdens to the greatest extent 

practicable, weighing the seven factors listed above. (42 U.S.C. 6295 (o)(2)(B)(i))

After the publication of the framework document, this energy conservation standards 

rulemaking process will involve three additional, formal public notices, which DOE publishes in 

the Federal Register. The first of the rulemaking notices is a Notice of Data Availability

(NODA), which is designed to publicly vet the models and tools used in the rulemaking and to 

facilitate public participation before the Notice of Proposed Rule (NOPR) stage. The second 

notice is the NOPR, which presents a discussion of: (1) comments received in response to the 

NODA analyses; (2) analyses of the impacts of potential amended energy conservation standards 

on consumers, manufacturers, and the Nation; (3) DOE’s weighting of these impacts of amended 

energy conservation standards; and (4) the proposed energy conservation standards for each 

product. The third notice is the final rule, which presents a discussion of: (1) the comments 

received in response to the NOPR; (2) the revised analyses; (3) DOE’s weighting of these 

impacts; (4) the amended energy conservation standards DOE is adopting for each product; and

(5) the effective dates of the amended energy conservation standards.

On February 11, 2013, DOE published a notice of public meeting and availability of the 

framework document. 78 FR 9631. The framework document, Rulemaking Framework

Document for Residential Boilers, describes the procedural and analytical approaches DOE 

anticipated using to evaluate the establishment of amended energy conservation standards for 

these products. This document is available at:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EERE-2012-BT-STD-0047-0001.

Subsequently, DOE held a public meeting on March 13, 2013 (“March 2013 public 

meeting”) to discuss procedural and analytical approaches to the rulemaking. In addition, DOE 

used the public meeting to inform and facilitate involvement of interested parties in the 

rulemaking process. The analytical framework presented at the public meeting described the 

different analyses, such as the engineering analysis and the consumer economic analyses (i.e., 

the life-cycle cost (LCC) and payback period (PBB) analyses), the methods proposed for 

conducting them, and the relationships among the various analyses.
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Table 1.3.1 Analyses Under the Process Rule

NODA NOPR Final Rule

Market and technology assessment Revised analyses Revised NOPR analyses

Screening analysis Life-cycle cost sub-group 

analysis

Engineering analysis Manufacturer impact analysis

Energy use determination Utility impact analysis

Markups for equipment price 

determination

Emissions analysis

Life-cycle cost and payback period 

analysis

Employment impact analysis

Shipments analysis Regulatory impact analysis

National impact analysis

During the March 13 public meeting, interested parties commented about issues relating 

to some of the analyses listed in Table 1.3.1. Comments from interested parties submitted during 

the framework document comment period elaborated on the issues raised during the public 

meeting. DOE addressed these issues during its analyses and summarized the comments and 

DOE’s responses in chapter 2.

As part of the information gathering and sharing process, DOE organized and held 

interviews with manufacturers of the residential boilers considered in this rulemaking as part of 

the engineering analysis. DOE selected companies that represented production of all types of 

products, ranging from small to large manufacturers, and included the Air-Conditioning, Heating 

and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) member companies. DOE had four objectives for these 

interviews: (1) solicit manufacturer feedback on the draft inputs to the engineering analysis; (2) 

solicit initial feedback on topics related to the manufacturer impact analysis performed for the 

NOPR; (3) provide an opportunity, early in the rulemaking process, to express manufacturers’ 

concerns to DOE; and (4) foster cooperation between manufacturers and DOE.

DOE incorporated the information gathered during the engineering interviews with 

manufacturers into its engineering analysis (chapter 5). Following the publication of the analyses 

and the NODA, DOE intends to hold additional meetings with manufacturers as part of the 

consultative process for the manufacturer impact analysis conducted during the NOPR phase of 

the rulemaking.

DOE developed an LCC spreadsheet that calculates the LCC and PBP at various energy 

efficiency levels. DOE also developed a national impact analysis spreadsheet that calculates the 

national energy savings (NES) and national net present values (NPVs) at various energy 

efficiency levels. This spreadsheet includes a model that projects the impacts of amended energy 

conservation standards at various levels on product shipments. All of these spreadsheets are 
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available on the DOE website for residential boilers:

(http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/rulemaking.aspx?ruleid=62).

1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE DOCUMENT

This document outlines the analytical approaches used in this rulemaking. This document 

consists of ten chapters and seventeen appendices.

Chapter 1 Introduction: provides an overview of the appliance standards program 

and how it applies to this rulemaking and outlines the structure of the 

document.

Chapter 2 Analytical Framework: describes the rulemaking process and addresses 

comments from interested parties on the issues raised during the public 

meeting.

Chapter 3 Market and Technology Assessment: characterizes the market for the 

considered products and the technologies available for increasing 

product efficiency.

Chapter 4 Screening Analysis: identifies all the design options that improve 

efficiency of the considered products and determines which technology 

options are viable for consideration in the engineering analysis.

Chapter 5 Engineering Analysis: discusses the methods used for developing the 

relationship between manufacturer production cost and increased 

product efficiency.

Chapter 6 Markups Analysis: discusses the methods used for establishing markups 

for converting manufacturer prices to customer product costs.

Chapter 7 Energy Use Analysis: discusses the process used for generating energyuse estimates for the considered products as a function of standard 

levels.

Chapter 8 Life-Cycle Cost and Payback Period Analysis: discusses the methods 

used to analyze effects of standards on individual customers and users of 

the products and compares the LCC and PBP of products with and 

without higher efficiency standards.

Chapter 9 Shipments Analysis: estimates shipments of the products over the 30-

year analysis period that is used in performing the national impact 
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analysis (NIA), including how shipments may vary under alternative 

standard levels.

Chapter 10 National Impact Analysis: assesses the national energy savings, and the 

national net present value of total consumer costs and savings, expected 

to result from specific, potential energy conservation standards.

Appendix 6A Detailed Data for Equipment Price Markups

Appendix 7A Building Variables

Appendix 7B Determination of Boiler Energy Use in the LCC Analysis

Appendix 7C Weather Station Data Mapping to RECS and CBECS Buildings 

Appendix 7D Reduced Set of Boiler Models and Characteristics

Appendix 8A User Instructions for Life-Cycle Cost Analysis Spreadsheet for Boilers

Appendix 8B Uncertainty and Variability in the LCC Analysis for Boilers

Appendix 8C Energy Price Calculations for Boilers

Appendix 8D Installation Cost Determination for Boilers

Appendix 8E Maintenance and Repair Cost Determination for Boilers

Appendix 8F Boiler Lifetime Determination

Appendix 8G Distributions Used for Discount Rates

Appendix 8H Base-case Efficiency Distributions

Appendix 9A Relative Price Elasticity of Demand for Appliances

Appendix 9B Historical Shipments of Residential Boilers

Appendix 10A User Instructions National Impact Analysis Spreadsheet Model

Appendix 10B Full Fuel Cycle Multipliers