A Bay Area policy shift is putting water heaters at the center of a growing debate among homeowners.
Starting next year, many residents across the nine-county region of California could be required, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, to replace broken gas water heaters with electric heat pump models instead — a cleaner option that can also bring thousands of dollars in added upfront costs.
The new rules from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District are meant to curb pollution from buildings, a major source of emissions in the region. For many homeowners, that means a failed gas water heater could no longer be replaced with a similar gas model…