View Rule

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has amended the Federal test procedures for air-cooled commercial package air conditioners and heat pumps with a rated cooling capacity greater than or equal to 65,000 Btu/h, evaporatively-cooled commercial package air conditioners, and water-cooled commercial package air conditioners to incorporate by reference the latest versions of the applicable industry test standards. In the final rule, DOE has amended the current test procedure for this equipment for measuring the current cooling and heating metrics -- integrated energy efficiency ratio (IEER) and coefficient of performance (COP), respectively; and established a new test procedure for this equipment that adopts two new metrics -- integrated ventilation, economizer, and cooling (IVEC) and integrated ventilation and heating efficiency (IVHE). Testing to the IVEC and IVHE metrics will not be required until such time as compliance is required with any amended energy conservation standard based on the new metrics. Additionally, DOE amended certain provisions of DOE’s regulations related to representations and enforcement for the subject equipment.