Greetings Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) advocates!
We have an opportunity to advocate to the US DOE on behalf of HPWHs!
Geoff Wickes is an emerging technology product manager for NEEA (Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance) currently focused entirely on HPWH technology, policy, and market adoption (and in full disclosure: also a close friend of mine). He has reached out to me seeking AEC industry support for a US DOE NOPR (Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking) focused on HPWHs. He thinks that having architects, engineers and contractors come out in favor of the rulemaking could be beneficial and consequential for US DOE.
Here is a [LINK] to the (TL;DR 425 page) DOE docket.
Here is a [LINK] to the (TL;DR 409) comments already submitted.
Attached you will find a fairly detailed explanatory deck on the subject, and a sample letter of support.
The (rather tight) timeline is that DOE will hold a webinar in mid-September 2023, and final public comments will be due by September 26, 2023. Given the tight timeline, it feels (to me, given past experience) that it is unrealistic for us to get a majority of our firms to sign onto a joint letter in less than a month, so I encourage you to consider having you as an individual AEC professional, or your firm submit a letter.
But if one or more of you think we can pull a joint letter off, we can definitely try. It can be impressive when a whole bunch of our AEC firms sign onto a single letter of support, indicating broad industry and trans-national (i.e. cross-country) support. Another option would be to have industry groups (e.g. AIA, MEP 2040, etc.) each try to send a letter... I'm not sure that would be any easier, or faster than getting our firms to agree to sign on, but it is an alternate option. I am on the AIA's Government Affairs Committee (GAC) so I will approach the AIA directly about this.
Guessing that many of you are already HPWH advocates, what do you think?
Clark
