by Brianna Crandall — July 3, 2015—The Commercial Package Air Conditioners and Commercial Warm Air Furnaces Working Group established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Appliance Standards and Rulemaking Federal Advisory Committee (ASRAC) in April has successfully reached consensus on energy conservation standards for commercial package air conditioners and commercial warm air furnaces.
The stakeholder group published a Term Sheet on June 15 outlining its recommendations to ASRAC on the energy conservation standards. The group also chose to provide test procedure and metric-related recommendations to the committee.
Among the group’s recommendations, gas-fired commercial warm air furnaces manufactured on and after January 1, 2023, must have a thermal efficiency at the maximum rated capacity (rated maximum input) not less than 81 percent, and oil-fired commercial warm air furnaces must have a thermal efficiency not less than 82 percent.
A Statement from Alliance to Save Energy President Kateri Callahan applauded the group’s accomplishment as “the most recent example of the capacity for energy efficiency to unify industry representatives, community advocates and diverse political perspectives to create meaningful recommendations with a significant impact. The working group has reached consensus on energy conservation standards for commercial package air conditioners and commercial warm air furnaces that will achieve a net savings of nearly $50 billion over the next 30 years.
“In coming up with the proposed consensus standard, the working group had to address several complicated issues involving other parts of the heating, cooling and ventilation systems. This type of ‘system performance’ issue is increasingly important to continued advances in building and equipment energy efficiency, and is the subject of a new initiative led by the Alliance with participation from many other efficiency advocates and industry partners.
“The rulemaking is a significant milestone following an already impressive series of household appliance and equipment standards set by the Department of Energy (DOE) during the current administration. This latest advancement would not have been possible without the culmination of innovative achievements in manufacturing, utility investment in efficiency programs and successful R&D projects from DOE and other industry leaders. Yet again, efficiency proves to be an issue where diverse groups and stakeholders can find common ground to positively impact our nation’s energy future.”
