Lochinvar at a glance: products and EPD coverage
Lochinvar sits in the sweet spot of commercial hot water and hydronic heat, with brand recognition that gets them invited to the bid table. The open question for many spec teams today is simple. Does their portfolio come with Environmental Product Declarations where it counts?
Who Lochinvar is in the market
Lochinvar is a long‑standing U.S. maker of water heaters and boilers that sells into residential light‑commercial and full commercial jobs. It operates as part of A. O. Smith Corporation, a global water technology company with its own sustainability reporting cadence (A. O. Smith, 2024).
What they make
The current catalog spans several families most specifiers know by name. Crest and Knight condensing boilers for space heat. Commercial and residential gas and electric water heaters. Combi units for mixed DHW and heat. And newer electrification‑leaning products like commercial electric boilers and air‑source heat pump water heaters highlighted on their site. Model-by-model, the line easily reaches into the dozens per family and overall into the hundreds.
Energy efficiency signals are strong
Multiple Lochinvar models appear on the ENERGY STAR registry, including Crest and Knight entries with listed thermal efficiency up to the mid‑90s percent range (ENERGY STAR, 2025 and ENERGY STAR, 2025). That keeps them in play for utility rebates and owner targets focused on operational efficiency.
EPD coverage today
Across major public EPD registries we checked, we did not find product‑specific EPDs for Lochinvar’s boilers or water heaters as of December 20, 2025. Their parent’s sustainability reporting is active, yet product declarations for these flagship lines appear absent. If a private EPD exists, it is not visible in the usual spec channels where teams look first.
Why that gap matters commercially
More owners are writing procurement rules that prefer or require product‑specific EPDs for building systems. When a product lacks an EPD, project teams often must assign a conservative default in their embodied carbon accounting. That becomes a quiet tiebreaker when two otherwise equal products are on the table. Nobody likes losing a spec because a document is missing.
A likely high‑runner without an EPD
Knight wall‑hung condensing boilers are common on mid‑rise and education retrofits and carry solid efficiency credentials on the ENERGY STAR list. We could not locate an EPD for a Knight model. That means in decarbonization‑driven projects, a design team can pivot to an alternative with published life‑cycle data without touching the rest of the spec. It hurts more when competitors show up with proof.
Where competitors are showing EPDs
European HVAC players increasingly publish EPDs for heat pumps and related plant equipment. Example. Vaillant’s aroTHERM Split heat pump has a third‑party EPD under Kiwa Ecobility Experts, which is exactly the type of listing U.S. specifiers are trained to trust (Kiwa Ecobility Experts, 2022). There are also several air‑to‑water and commercial heat pump EPDs in the International EPD System that land in the same decision set as condensing boilers on electrification projects (EPD International, 2025). The message is simple. Declarations exist for comparable plant equipment, and they travel with the product into every proposal package.
Product ranges and where EPDs could start fast
- Commercial condensing boilers. Start with a top‑seller family such as Crest or Knight to cover dozens of SKUs in one study. The use phase can be excluded if the target PCR allows a cradle‑to‑gate scope. Faster to launch and immediately useful for specs.
- Commercial storage and tankless water heaters. Prioritize a gas storage family used in offices, healthcare and higher‑ed. Then add the new heat pump water heater line to protect electrification projects. One cradle‑to‑gate EPD per family can still unlock a lot of bids.
Typical competitor set in bids
For like‑kind combustion heat. Weil‑McLain, Cleaver‑Brooks, Laars, Patterson‑Kelley, Raypak. For tankless DHW and smaller plant. Rinnai, Navien, Rheem, Bradford White. For electrification swaps and hybrid plants. Viessmann, Bosch Thermotechnology, Daikin, and other air‑to‑water heat pump suppliers. On projects that must show lower embodied and operational carbon, teams will shortlist whoever pairs efficiency with a current, verifed EPD.
What specifiers look for when they ask for an EPD
They want a product‑specific, third‑party verified declaration aligned to EN 15804 or ISO 21930. They want it downloadable without a password. And they want a clear model mapping so submittals are painless. None of that changes performance or safety listings. It just removes friction. It also means the sales team doesn’t have to argue assumptions in a carbon model that was stacked against them in the first place.
One more lever. Use corporate sustainability as a bridge
A. O. Smith’s 2024 report highlights emissions intensity progress and water stewardship goals. That narrative helps, but product EPDs are the credential that moves a specific boiler or water heater into a compliant materials log on a given job (A. O. Smith, 2024). Linking the two is how you convert sustainability talk into spec wins.
Bottom line for commercial ROI
EPDs are a paperwork win that repeatedly pays back with even one mid‑sized project. For Lochinvar, beginning with Crest or Knight and a flagship commercial water heater family would give broad coverage across hundreds of SKUs in practice. That is the shortest path from today’s strong efficiency story to tomorrow’s full specability. If you wait, competitors keep normalizing heat pump and boiler EPDs while you sit out the selection, which is defininitely avoidable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Lochinvar publish Environmental Product Declarations for its boilers or water heaters?
We could not locate public product‑specific EPDs for Lochinvar boilers or water heaters on major program operator registries as of December 20, 2025. If a private EPD exists, it is not discoverable in the usual channels specifiers use.
What is the fastest slice of Lochinvar’s portfolio to cover first with an EPD?
A high‑runner boiler family such as Crest or Knight, using a cradle‑to‑gate scope under an appropriate PCR. That one document can represent dozens of models in submittals with a clean model‑mapping appendix.
Do ENERGY STAR listings help if there is no EPD?
Yes, for operational efficiency goals and rebates. They do not replace a product‑specific EPD for embodied carbon accounting. Example listings exist for Lochinvar Crest and Knight models on the ENERGY STAR registry (ENERGY STAR, 2025).
Which competitors already show EPDs in adjacent categories?
Vaillant has a third‑party verified EPD for heat pumps under Kiwa Ecobility Experts, and additional heat pump EPDs are visible in the International EPD System. These commonly appear in the same decision set on electrification projects (Kiwa Ecobility Experts, 2022 and EPD International, 2025).
About the Author
Eric works at the intersection of sustainability, regulation, and business strategy, helping manufacturers navigate the evolving landscape of EPDs and LCAs. Having spoken with hundreds of teams across North America, brings a deep understanding of what drives ROI, what regulators are asking for, and how companies can stay ahead with smart, scalable approaches to environmental reporting.
