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Market-proven and NEA-compliant: gas water heaters for future-ready homes
From 1 April 2025, water heaters must carry NEA MELS/MEPS labels, with Green Mark 2021 mapping dwelling‑unit equipment to those labels.
Gas water heaters meet these new requirements by providing a high-tick rating while removing electrical element loads at the unit level.
While energy labels indicate energy efficiency, they do not capture the full environmental impact, particularly carbon emissions.
For example, electric storage water heaters of 40 litres or more, common in private housing, typically achieve only up to a 2-tick rating, already indicating lower efficiency and greater impact to the environment. Yet these ratings may not reflect their true carbon footprint.
This is why examining carbon emissions offers a more meaningful measure of real-world performance. They reveal the scale of impact on both individual users and large-scale developments, offering a clearer benchmark for sustainability decisions.
According to a 2023 carbon life cycle study by Associate Professor Lee Siew Eang of the Department of the Built Environment, NUS, a typical electric storage water heater in Singapore emits about 400kg of CO₂ annually per user, compared to just 80kg for a gas water heater. This represents an 80% reduction, or up to 320kg saved per user each year.
At a project scale, these savings add up quickly: for a 500-unit development, that’s up to 160 tons of CO₂ avoided annually.
Lowering carbon emissions goes beyond labels and compliance. It helps property developers meet Green Mark requirements today, while also strengthening ESG reporting and sustainability positioning as buyer expectations and national standards continue to rise.
What has changed and why it matters now
With Green Mark 2021 directly referencing the NEA tick system for dwelling-unit equipment, both regulators and buyers can see clearly via a label what the choice of water heaters means. A low-tick electric storage water heater becomes a weakness in submissions, while a 4-tick gas water heater strengthens compliance optics and project positioning.
Town gas emission factor is lower than the grid emission factor (0.412 kg CO2/kWh). In addition, electric storage water heaters are less energy-efficient due to higher standby losses from keeping large volumes of water heated over extended periods.
As a result, each year, electric storage water heaters are estimated to emit about 400 kg of carbon per user, compared to 80 kg for gas water heaters - indicating that switching to gas could reduce emissions by up to 320 kg annually per user.
By heating water via town gas instead of electricity, projects can reduce operational emissions without compromising or changing the home buyer experience, making it a pragmatic decarbonisation step that aligns with Singapore’s 2030 Green Plan. Developers who adopt gas water heaters now are preparing for future-proofed specifications and clearer sustainability narratives, rather than reacting later as standards tighten.
For more context on the April 2025 labelling changes, see our earlier article, Get Ahead of Green.
From the Study On Domestic Water Heaters Energy Use And Its Climate Impact In Singapore – Page 51
The market is moving and continues to shift
Gas water heater adoption is now mainstream. Across completed projects, installations are up about 210% in 2023–2025 versus 2020–2022, driven by stronger efficiency messaging, updated designs, and the promise of on-demand hot water. Today, more than 210,000 gas water heaters are installed in homes.
Since City Energy launched the next generation Life gas water heaters in August 2024, there has been strong uptake of more than 200% average monthly sales from new BTO homeowners who valued efficiency and environmental factors.
This demand is also reflected in the current uptake among developers.
Together, this signals a mature market shift where homeowners and developers are aligned on efficiency and compliance, and a clear indicator that gas water heaters are no longer a speculative choice.
Tony Wong, Homeowner at The Waterview Condo, said: “With the gas water heater, we no longer worry about running out of hot water during back-to-back showers, and we’ve freed up space that a bulky tank would otherwise take. What makes it even better is knowing that our choice cuts down our household carbon footprint, so the comfort we enjoy every day also supports a more sustainable future.”
Case in point — Hoi Hup × City Energy
Recent developer partnerships highlight the shifting market landscape. Hoi Hup is specifying KÜCHE smart kitchen appliances and smart gas water heaters at Novo Place and Otto Place, while the upcoming Tampines mixed development will also feature gas water heaters. These projects show that adoption is broadening and is no longer limited to early movers.
Koon Wai Leong, General Manager of Hoi Hup Realty Pte Ltd, said: “Our partnership with City Energy brings a cohesive smart‑home package to Novo Place and Otto Place — pairing KÜCHE smart appliances with smart gas water heaters. It’s a practical, efficient system that delivers the user experience that today’s home buyers expect. At the same time, it aligns our projects with future sustainability standards, including appliance labelling requirements.”
Gas water heaters for today’s lifestyle needs
Electric storage water heaters are familiar, but they come with inherent inefficiencies. Because they heat and hold hot water continuously, they create standby energy losses and require bulky storage tanks that take up valuable space.
Gas water heaters heat water only when needed, eliminating standby losses and enabling design flexibility for developers and M&E teams. Many current models also include preheating functions, which reduce wait time for hot water and minimise water wastage from draining cold water out of the line — a direct sustainability and efficiency benefit that can be showcased to buyers.
At the technical level, these gas water heaters use thermistors and electronic burner modulation to maintain a steady outlet temperature. Some models add flow control, delivering precise regulation across multi-bathroom homes when correctly sized for the project’s flow, diversity, and temperature rise requirements.
What today’s gas water heaters offer
These are the benefits that the current generation of gas water heaters offer:
Labels have made the choice clear
Water heaters have shifted from a quiet, behind-the-scenes decision to a visible indicator of sustainability. Private-sector developers have long specified gas water heaters for condominiums and ECs, and now, newer private projects are adopting smart IoT-enabled models, adding connectivity to proven performance.
The public sector is also catching up, with growing interest driven by the same factors. For today’s projects, a low-tick electric storage heater will now stand out as a weakness, whereas a high-tick gas water heater signals efficiency and readiness for future standards, all while delivering the performance buyers expect.
With market adoption now mainstream and clear data showing both buyer demand and carbon benefits, specifying gas water heater is no longer an alternative — it’s the logical next step for future-ready developments.