POWER: Law Loosens an Efficiency Standard But Boosts Grid Stability.

The story goes like this: Back in 2010, the U.S. government formulated regulations to improve the efficiency of many types of appliances, including electric water heaters. The new standards were slated to go into effect in April of 2015.

This seemed a good idea, at least on the surface. But according to Harshal Upadhye of the Electric Power Research Institute, the regulators involved didn’t appreciate that electric utility companies were keen to use people’s electric water heaters for load management, switching them off remotely to reduce power demand when needed. A water heater is a perfect load to use in this way, because it can store energy in the form of hot water for long periods. It’s sort of like having a big wet battery connected to the electric grid. . . .

That legislation now allows large-capacity electric water heaters to be sold, despite their inefficiency compared to the heat-pump type. But there are provisions to ensure that most, if not all, of those water heaters are used in laudable ways.

For example, it makes it illegal to “unlock” a grid-enabled water heater so that it can be used without being part of a demand-management or thermal-energy storage program. And the government can still bar the sale of such water heaters if it determines that the number of them being sold is 15 or more percent greater than the number of them involved in the kinds of programs they were designed for.

So the lesson should be clear. Jailbreak your iPhone if you want, but don’t jailbreak your grid-interactive water heater or you’ll make it bad for everybody.

You know, I don’t really want anyone else controlling my hot water.