Environmental attorney Sanders says energy efficient hot water heaters now available for residential use.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced the availability of ENERGY STAR® residential water heaters. Introduction of this product provides significant potential savings to consumers. Water heating represents up to 15.5 percent of national residential energy consumption, the second largest end use of energy in homes, following heating and cooling. Using one of five specified water heating technologies, ENERGY STAR® qualified water heaters can reduce water heating bills from 7.5 percent to as much as 55 percent.

In five years, the new water heater criteria are expected to save Americans consumers $823 million in utility costs, avoid 4.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and achieve cumulative energy savings of more than 3.9 billion kilowatt-hours and 270 million therms of natural gas – enough energy to power more than 375,000 homes for a year.