Technology developed through a collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and General Electric meets new a tough new Energy Star water heater program criteria. GE is set to be the first company to meet the new energy saving standard, and will also be creating hundreds of jobs in Louisville, Kentucky.

GE announced the heater the day after the new Energy Star heat pump hot water heater criteria was released, which required future heaters to be twice as efficient as an electric storage water heater. The new water heater criteria are expected to save American households approximately $780 million, per the DOE.

GE has targeted increasing concerns over utility costs as water heating “accounts for 12 percent of U.S. home energy consumption” making it one of the top contributors to household demand.The GE Hybrid Electric Water Heater is designed to produce equivalent performance to standard water heaters, except at half the operating cost, requiring 2300 kWh of electricity per year compared with 4800 kwH/year. The hybrid technology saves energy by absorbing heat in ambient air and transferring it into the water, which requires much less energy than it does to generate heat.

“It’ll give you as much hot water, it’ll have the same recovery time so you won’t run out of hot water, but it will use half the energy to do so,” said Patrick Hughes of ORNL. “Typical family of four would save about $250 to $300 per year and the device will qualify for the personal tax credits, it will pay for itself in about three years.”

The tax credits Hughes refers to are the Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency, which can cover 30 percent of the cost for non-solar water heaters (up to $1,500). GE also manufactures solar water heaters, which are a small but growing market in the U.S., and energy-efficient tankless water heaters, which heat water on demand.

If current water heaters (44 million) were switched to GE’s heat pump water heater, annual energy savings could equate to the electric output of 176 coal-fired power plants per year and 12 million tons of carbon emissions reduction, per the 2007 Buildings Energy Data Book.

The Louisville plant is set to start producing water heaters in 2011. The planned manufacturing facility also has a potential to create 1,600 incremental green jobs over time.

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GARNER, N.C. – Complications from installing an industrial, gas-fired water heater caused the deadly explosion at the Garner ConAgra plant last Tuesday, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s initial report.

Federal investigators said Thursday that the week before the explosion, outside contractors had installed the water heater and a new natural gas line for it.

The day of the explosion, crews were trying to get the new equipment working.

“The CSB is examining the possibility that gases inside the line were likely purged and vented directly into the pump room, in the interior of the building, leading to a flammable gas cloud and an explosion,” CSB Investigations Supervisor Don Holmstrom said.

Investigators would not name the company that installed the water heater and purged the gas line, but two people injured in the explosion have filed a lawsuit against Southern Industrial Contractors.

However, an attorney representing that company said at the time of the explosion, no Southern Industrial employees were working on gas lines or water heaters.

Meanwhile, ConAgra officials announced Thursday that the plant will resume production in August in the portion of the building that wasn’t damaged in the explosion.

The Chemical Safety Board said it will likely take nine months to a year for them to issue their final report.

North Carolina’s Occupational Safety and Health Division must complete its investigation within six months. Investigators said the area of the plant where the explosion occurred is still too dangerous for anyone to go inside.

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