By Marcelle Dibrell

Following the Trump administration’s regulatory freeze — which directed federal agencies to roll back or revise Biden-era regulations — there is uncertainty about whether the U.S. Department of Energy’s finalized regulations regarding pool and spa equipment will remain in effect.

According to a recent Pool and Hot Tub Alliance Government Relations Newsletter, “It’s unclear how these orders will affect the DOE’s posture toward rules, which have completed the formal rulemaking process under the Administrative Procedure Act, such as those regulating the dedicated-purpose pool pump motors and pool heaters. The administrative actions also bring into question the timeline for the ongoing Portable Electric Spa (PES) efficiency rule that IHTA has been pushing for the last few years.”

However, Dr. Jeremy Dunklin, senior technical advocacy associate for the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, has been in communication with the DOE, and he does not believe that the pool equipment standards that have been finalized should be affected.

Heat pump pool heaters work efficiently as long as the outside temperature remains above the 45ºF–50ºF range. The cooler the outside air they draw in, the less efficient they are, resulting in higher energy bills. DOE

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“The delay notices that we’re seeing from the Department of Energy don’t affect the compliance date (i.e., when manufacturers have to comply with a new standard or test procedure) but rather the “effective date”, which is when the rule goes into the Code of Federal Regulations (typically 60 days after a rule is published).” Dunklin said in an email.

In other words, because the standards governing dedicatedpurpose pool pump motors and pool heaters went into effect in 2023, Dunklin believes that the compliance dates of those standards will remain unchanged, meaning manufacturers will still be required to meet the efficiency requirements as scheduled.

Furthermore, there are antirollback provisions in federal law that protect energy efficiency standards from being weakened. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) includes a “backsliding” provision, which generally prohibits the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from weakening or rolling back existing energy efficiency standards.

This means that once an efficiency standard is in place, the DOE cannot set a weaker standard in a future rulemaking — it can only maintain or strengthen it.

Even with administrative changes and regulatory freezes, these antirollback rules make it difficult for finalized efficiency standards — like those for dedicated-purpose pool pump motors and pool heaters — to be undone or weakened. Nonetheless, enforcement delays, legal challenges, or reinterpretations of standards can still create uncertainty.

Whether U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) regulations finalized during the Biden administration will remain in place could still be challenged, depending on several factors: 1. Congressional Review Act (CRA): If a regulation was finalized recently, a new administration or Congress could overturn it via the CRA.

2. Executive Actions: A new administration could issue executive orders directing agencies to review and modify prior regulations.

3. Judicial Challenges: Lawsuits from states, industries, or advocacy groups could delay or block certain regulations.

4. Agency Discretion: The DOE itself may reassess rules based on new policy priorities.

Here’s a look at the current Department of Energy Conservation regulations pertaining to pool and spa equipment: The final rule for the DOE’s Energy Conservation Standards for Dedicated-Purpose Pool Pump Motors, Federal Register, 88FR66966 was posted September 28, 2023, and went into effect on November 27, 2023.

The specifics of the pump motor standards are as follows:

• Compliance with the new standards established for dedicatedpurpose pool pump motors with motor total horsepower < 0.5 THP in this final rule is required on and after September 29, 2025.

• Compliance with the new standards established for dedicatedpurpose pool pump motors with motor total horsepower = 0.5 THP and < 1.15 THP in this final rule is required on and after September 28, 2027.

• Finally, compliance with the new standards established for dedicatedpurpose pool pump motors with motor total horsepower = 1.15 THP and = 5 THP in this final rule is required on and after September 29, 2025.

The final rule for the DOE’s Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Pool Heaters, Federal Register 88FR34624, was posted May 30, 2023, and went into effect on July 31, 2023.

• The new standards set the first efficiency requirements for electric pool heaters and effectively require the use of efficient electric heat pump technology. For gas pool heaters, the new standards are based on a minimum thermal efficiency (TE) of 84 percent, still permitting non-condensing technology. The new standards for both electric and gas pool heaters are based on a new metric, integrated thermal efficiency (TEI), which incorporates standby and off-mode energy consumption.

• Compliance with the amended standards established for pool heaters in this final rule is required on and after May 30, 2028.

There are currently no energy conservation standards for portable DOE

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electric spas, according to the DOE, but a Notice of Data Availability, Federal Register 90FR4605, was issued January 16, 2025. Furthermore, a final rule for a test procedure for portable electric spas, Federal Register 88FR38600, was published June 13, 2023, and went into effect on July 13, 2023.

• The DOE created a test procedure for measuring the energy use of portable electric spas.

• The test method produces a measure of the energy consumption of portable electric spas that represents the average power consumed by the spa, normalized to a standard temperature difference between the ambient air and the water in the spa, while the cover is on and the product is operating in its default operation mode.