Legislative mandates and enticing incentives are providing a favorable climate for the adoption of electric boilers and heat pump water heaters. The federal Inflation Reduction Act offers billions of dollars in incentives for both commercial and residential customers who switch to electric boilers. Those funds will help offset the retrofit costs, which can be significant.

 While many coastal cities have already banned gas-fired boilers in new construction, a greater number of U.S. jurisdictions are promoting the two-pronged strategy of encouraging electric boiler adoption in tandem with installing gas-fired units that offer impressive efficiency that simply wasn’t possible five years ago.

 Here’s a snapshot of some of the legislation spurring the transition to electric units:

• Last year, the Washington State Building Council voted to update the state’s building codes to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in new commercial buildings.

• In an effort to shift customers from heating oil to electricity, the state of Maine passed incentives designed to encourage installation of 100,000 heat pumps by next year.

• The city of Seattle adopted a 24 cents-per-gallon tax on home-heating oil, and the revenue will aid in efforts to convert customers from oil to all-electric heat.

Both commercial and residential users are discovering that electric boilers provide numerous advantages: no venting as with gas boilers, faster initial startup/shutdown time and quiet operation. In addition, an indoor electric boiler transfers 100% of the electrical energy into heat with no loss due to heat transfer or up the stack. Additionally, electric boilers provide this level of efficiency even in cold weather.

 In regions of the U.S. with ample hydroelectric and solar power, installing an electric boiler can result in net-zero emissions because the production of electricity doesn’t require the burning of fossil fuels.

However, switching from gas boilers to electric units comes with a variety of challenges. For instance, the cost of electricity in New England is roughly three times higher than in the Pacific Northwest, which has abundant hydroelectric power. Moreover, making the switch from gas can be complicated. Replacing a 3- or 4-million BTU boiler with an equivalent electric unit requires adequate electrical supply—and the electrical infrastructure to support it.

Meanwhile, today’s ultra-high efficiency gas boilers have a much lower carbon footprint than yesterday’s copper tube/cast iron gas boilers that provided only mid-range efficiency. Moreover, these high-end gas boilers can be piped primary/secondary or full flow, providing much greater installation flexibility.

For these reasons, many cities and states are relying on transitional technologies to help pave the way for an all-electric future:

 Smart controls dramatically reduce emissions: CO₂ emissions decrease with each uptick in efficiency. For gas boilers to reach 98% to 99% efficiency, they incorporate enhanced controls that utilize real-time data to boost efficiency. When there is a call for heat, these gas units can modulate with precision, which eliminates wasteful short cycling.

Advancements in fire-tube boilers: Fire-tube boilers can achieve 98% efficiency in a smaller footprint than other types of boilers. Lochinvar’s FTXL 400-1.0 boiler, for example, can operate over a wide range of flow rates with very low pressure drop. This permits the installation of a full-flow system and eliminates the time and material costs associated with primary and secondary piping, as well as the pumps needed to maintain the flow in a water-tube boiler. 

 Benefits of connectivity: Monitoring boilers in the field can greatly aid in meeting sustainability goals as contractors have the ability to rapidly adjust settings to improve performance. Lochinvar’s CON·X·US remote connectivity platform, for example, functions as a mobile portal to a database of real-time and historical data on boilers in multiple locations. Engineers can quickly perform a remote check on operating status or reprogram boiler functions—whether it’s a single boiler in Milwaukee or an eight-unit cascading system in Atlanta.

 Making training more accessible: To get the most out of the latest technologies, facility managers and engineers need state-of-the-art training. Lochinvar University offers in-person courses, and online courses are available from LochinvarU.com.

Additionally, this year Lochinvar will be redeploying its 30-foot, climate-controlled training truck that takes education directly to customer facilities. On board the truck is a 60-inch television that enables access to training videos and how-to guides, plus up to six different residential Lochinvar units. Each unit is piped and wired so that the unit screens function as simulators, and the piping is shown as it would be in a real-world application – complete with pumps and an expansion tank. 

Leading by Example

It’s imperative that boiler manufacturers not only preach the benefits of sustainable solutions, but practice those principles in manufacturing facilities.

 Lochinvar has implemented high- and low-firing stages in the tank glassing furnace, which significantly reduces fuel consumption. We’ve installed motion-activated lighting in all our facilities—from the offices to the production floor—to reduce electric use. And we’ve upgraded to new sheet metal laser cutters that use 30% less electricity.

  Boiler manufacturers can’t just snap their fingers and usher in an all-electric future. As electric boilers gain popularity, ultra-high efficiency gas boilers will continue to play a vital role in the transition to more sustainable solutions.

 Every small increase in the efficiency of gas units leads to lower emissions. Meanwhile, manufacturers like Lochinvar are helping customers understand both the challenges and benefits of switching to electric boilers. For large commercial applications, switching to electric boilers can be both complex and costly, but state and federal incentives will help offset those costs.

 Relying on transitional technologies like heat pump water heaters and ultra-high efficiency gas boilers will steadily help our industry reach its most ambitious decarbonization goals. l

Robert Wiseman is the segment development manager – hydronics at Lochinvar.