Requirements for heaters revised

As households face record-high heating bills, the Energy Department has issued new requirements for residential furnaces -- although critics say the rules will do little to save people money or push more-efficient equipment onto the market.

The new standards, which would replace 15-year-old regulations, require residential gas furnaces to be 80% efficient by 2015. Critics contend that almost all gas furnaces sold already meet that level, meaning the new standard would do little to spur new technology.

Energy-efficiency advocates had argued for a minimum 90% efficiency standard, a level already achieved or exceeded by about a third of the gas furnaces sold, or for regional standards with more stringent requirements in cold-weather areas.

The Energy Department rejected both options, maintaining that it had no authority to issue regional standards -- a position some energy-efficiency advocates dispute.

Energy legislation now before Congress would specifically allow regional standards.