I began talking about the changes for water heaters last summer. Today marks 74 days until the new DOE efficiency standards go into effect on April 16, 2015. At that point, residential water heaters will change in size, design and most importantly, cost. The supply house that I purchase my Bradford White water heaters from recently sent out an e-mail stating that the expected price increase for conventional water heaters would be 15%. For anything above 55 gallons for either gas or electric, the price increase will be significantly more. For gas water heaters, they will have to be a "power vent" model that comes with a blower and has to be vented with PVC pipe. For electric water heaters above 55 gallons, they will have to be a hybrid unit using heat pump technology. 

To try and keep this brief, my advice is that if your water heater is 10 years old or older, consider replacing it now. I have customers that have water heaters jammed between furnaces and walls that are going to be in for a rude awakening when it comes time to replace those heaters if it has to be under the new design standards. Possible scenarios could be downsizing to a smaller water heater, relocating to another part of the house or switching to a tankless water heater. 

Customers Chuck and Cheryl H. from Carmel heeded my warning and replaced their 11 year old water heater recently. If they had waited, a new 50 gallon gas water heater would not have fit into the opening between the furnace and wall. 

    This is the opening that the old water had to come out of and the 
    new one go in. There was barely an inch on either side for the new water     heater to go in. The new design would not have fit in this 

    opening.