Advanced Water Heating Specification

This document succeeds the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s (NEEA’s) previous Advanced Water Heating Specification (AWHS Version 8.0). This version includes substantial updates to Chapters 2 and 3. For residential water heaters, demand response requirements are met through OpenADR Alliance’s EcoPort certification, split-systems are qualifiable for interior and/or exterior applications, and Plug-ins will be evaluated with the same requirement as other residential water heaters. For commercial/multifamily systems, AWHS v8.1 streamlines listing of commercial HPWHs (CHPWH) and creates a pathway for integrated CHPWHs.

The Advanced Water Heating Specification's Qualified Products Lists (QPL) are broken into two different lists. One for Residential and the other for Commercial (multifamily). In general terms, Residential products are found in single family or low rise multifamily (in residential dwelling units). Commercial products can be integrated or split systems that serve more than four dwelling units or commercial loads (as defined in the specification).

The qualified products lists are available at the following links:

  1. Residential QPL
  2. Commercial QPL

If you have any questions and or insights, please reach out to Adam Gage, Senior Product Manager at NEEA.


This specification provides guidance to manufacturers and other market actors who are interested in developing products that not only meet ENERGY STAR criteria but are able to provide high levels of consumer satisfaction and energy performance in a range of climates.

Water heating Water heater electric Water heater Water Specification Advanced  Heat Pump  AWHS  Northern Climate Northern Climate Specification

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