this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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There's a rule banning gas water heaters in 2027 (www.baaqmd.gov)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Just came across this new rule, via this article: https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/california-electric-19563602.php

2027 is when they ban sale of new replacement gas water heaters.

They talk about a few solutions, like low voltage electric heaters, and load sharing plugs to share a dryer plug among the water heater and a electric dryer. So that could do it for a lot of people.
But I'd guess a surge in panel replacements will happen within the next 2 years.
Especially since new gas furnaces will be banned in 2029.

Also, obligatory Fuck PGE. We have higher rates than most of the rest of the world and it's all the fault of the corrupt PUC and PGE.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Rheem makes a 120v-based series of heat pump water heaters now. They were specifically designed for homes with gas water heaters and not enough 240v outlets. I won’t be surprised if/when other manufacturers follow.

If you have an attached garage, you might consider having it installed there to suck up all the summer heat.

If you’re worried about peak electricity usage, you can put your water heater on a timer so it’s only active during the hours you need it. Some water heaters come with this feature built in. Modern water heaters hold heat well, like a battery. So you won’t lose much heat from the water when the power is cut. Technology Connections did a good video on this subject.

Be sure to check for city, state, and federal rebates when replacing your water heater. They can cut costs significantly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Electric water heaters mean you’re all paying peak electric prices because most cities mandate tankless water heaters. You can thank PG&E for bribing the PUC to force everyone onto time of use rate plans.

Only alternative is to be rich enough to own solar panels and batteries for load shifting.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Make sense.

Seriously gas water heaters‽ What century do you guys live in?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

The century where electricity costs us 50-75¢/kWh (headed for $1/kWh by 2028-2030) and gas is significantly less expensive to use for heating.

Deregulation absolutely fucked California's energy markets and the PUC+PG&E are going to keep the deep dicking going as long as humanly possible.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Jesus it’s like $0.17/kWh here

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Someones gotta pay for the wildfires PG&E caused and it aint gonna be the shareholders!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Here in Sweden, gas is pretty much obsolete and not a lot of places even have the option of using gas. Afaik only really the old buildings in the big cities has gas.

Furnace heating is pretty rare in Sweden so we generally use electricity. Our grid is also very stable and renewable.

Average electricity prices including fees, taxes and all that was apparently between 0,17 EUR and 0,19 EUR per kWh in December 2023. Don't you guys have geothermal and heat pumps?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The majority of our generation here in CA is PV during daylight hours and nat. gas generation plants (plus the odd nuke plant here and there) to cover any shortages. We have some battery storage to convert that PV generation capacity into night time power but not nearly enough. We have very little geothermal or tidal generation here.

Most of the abusive cost of electricity here is PG&E offloading their $20B+ wildfire liability from 2015-2019 onto customers.

Every single home I've lived in since the late 90s has used nat gas for water and central heating. Electric is becoming popular over time but gas is still very common.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So what happens when you guys get blackouts every summer?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Modern gas water heaters already have electronic ignition systems

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

California has not had summer blackouts in 20 years since Enron and other Texas energy companies did a criminal conspiracy to idle power plants and drive the price through the roof.

Texas still has summer and winter blackouts.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Those are local outages due to trees causing downed lines, squirrels getting into transformers, motor vehicle accidents, etc. They aren't the same as the blackouts like you get from an overloaded or strained power grid like they have in Texas.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago

You know what? If you believe that, you can continue believing it. Don't need any more.