This week I will be travelling to Mississauga to attend the latest meeting of the CSA Technical Committee on Energy Efficiency and Related Performance of Fuel-Burning Appliances and Equipment. The last meeting was in St John's last June. I am a voting member of this most important committee as is Martin Miles, the chair of our national Government Affairs committee. This TC sets the terms of reference for a plethora of performance standards such as P. 4 and B415. I will also be taking the opportunity of meeting with folks from Natural Resources Canada with whom I have an on-going dialogue.
Gas Fireplaces are not currently regulated for minimum efficiencies. This will change. Our challenge is to ensure that regulators understand the rationale of not setting these minimums too high and not applying minimum efficiencies to "decorative appliances". Gas fireplaces are not purely utility appliances. They need to be aesthetically pleasing and treating them in the same way as furnaces or water heaters is unreasonable.
This is an extensive and complicated area which has taken up a lot of my time, and that of volunteers, over recent months. It encompasses the future of pilot lights, thermostats, maximum BTU limits, the marketing of "decorative" units and the reworking of the performance standard p.4. The process is further influenced and complicated by similar events taking place in the US.
At worst many gas fireplaces, as we know them, could be regulated out of existence. I am pleased to say, though, that the folks at NR Can seem committed to working with us so as to achieve an outcome that the industry can accept.
Discussions will no doubt continue for months to come.
Tony Gottschalk,
Manager: HPBAC
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