Atmospherically vented (or naturally aspirated) combustion appliances are not appropriate for high-performance homes. With the exception of gas stoves and cooktops, combustion appliances in a DER home must be sealed combustion, induced draft, or power-vented. The best approach is to replace existing natural draft appliances with sealed combustion, induced draft, or power-vented equipment. These types of appliances are significantly more energy efficient than natural draft appliances. If replacing equipment is not feasible, draft inducer retrofit kits can provide fail-safe forced-draft performance for some types of combustion appliances. While this can address the combustion safety, adding forced-draft operation alone is unlikely to have a significant impact on energy performance.

Gas stoves and cook tops must be equipped with a range hood that is ducted to the outside.

Solid fuel-burning stoves (e.g. wood stoves and pellet stoves) if not equipped with a fail-safe draft inducer, must have a tight fitting loading door (and no permanent openings or leaks into the firebox or flue) and outdoor combustion air ducted to the firebox.

Solid fuel-burning hearth fireplaces require special treatment to be acceptable in a DER home. The following minimum measures are recommended for fireplaces:

1. Flue liner in good condition (flue liner may need to be repaired or a flue liner may need to be installed in older chimneys).
2. Air tight hearth doors.
3. Outdoor combustion air ducted to firebox.
4. Operable flue damper.

If the house has combustion appliances of any kind, carbon monoxide alarms complying with UL 2034 are required in close proximity to the combustion appliances and outside each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms.