Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy September 9, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces receipt of and publishes a petition for waiver from Dyson, Inc. (Dyson) seeking an exemption from specified portions of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure for determining the energy consumption of battery chargers. The waiver request pertains to the battery chargers in Dyson's robotic vacuum cleaner model RB01, marketed as the Dyson 360-Eye (Robot). In its petition, Dyson contends that in order to provide the user with the advanced setting and management features of the Robot, the relevant functionalities and circuitry have to be powered at all times, and consequently, there is no user-controllable switch to disable those non-battery charging functions as the current DOE test procedure contemplates. Consequently, Dyson seeks to use an alternate test procedure to turn off the Non-Battery Charging Functionalities during the charge and maintenance mode test by isolating a terminal of the battery pack using isolating tape. This notice also announces that DOE has granted Dyson an interim waiver from the DOE battery charger test procedure for its specified robotic vacuum cleaner basic model, subject to use of the alternative test procedure as set forth in this notice. DOE solicits comments, data, and information concerning Dyson's petition and its suggested alternate test procedure.