Department of Energy December 8, 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended (EPCA), prescribes energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment, including single package vertical air conditioners (SPVACs) and single package vertical heat pumps (SPVHPs), collectively referred to as single package vertical units (SPVUs). EPCA also requires the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to periodically review standards. In this notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR); notification of proposed determination (NOPD), DOE proposes to amend the current energy conservation standards for SPVUs such that the existing standard levels would be based on a new cooling efficiency metric of Integrated Energy Efficiency Ratio (IEER) for SPVACs and SPVHPs, and the current heating efficiency metric of Coefficient of Performance (COP) for SPVHPs (but without any increase in stringency), In addition, DOE has initially determined that more-stringent standards for SPVUs would not be economically justified and would not result in a significant conservation of energy. DOE also announces a public meeting to receive comment on these proposed standards and associated analyses and results.