Electronics & Electricals

The Department of Energy has initiated a rulemaking and data collection process to develop a potential energy conservation standard and related test procedures for set-top boxes and network equipment. This process will analyse the technological, environmental, employment and regulatory impact of a test procedure and standard on consumers, manufacturers, utilities and the United States as a whole. During this analysis, the DOE will determine the feasibility of establishing a standard that achieves the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that is technologically feasible and economically justified. As part of this process, the DOE will hold a meeting on 26 January and is seeking information from interested parties by 14 February that will assist the agency in performing its analysis and development of a test procedure and energy conservation standard for these products.

The DOE will hold a separate meeting on 19 January and will accept comments, data and information by 28 February on a proposal to establish energy test procedures for high-intensity discharge lamps. The proposed procedures are based on industry standard procedures and practices already established by the American National Standards Institute, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the International Commission on Illumination. They would include measurement of parameters to enable calculation of lamp efficacy (in lumens per watt or lm/W) and provide for the efficiency measurement of directional lamps using centre beam intensity (in candelas) and beam angle. In addition, the proposed procedures would measure lumen maintenance (i.e., the fraction or percentage of lamp light output relative to initial output, over time) at 40 percent and 70 percent of rated lamp lifetime. Correlated colour temperature and colour rendering index would also be measured as potential means to delineate equipment classes for HID lamps. The DOE is not proposing test procedures for standby mode or off mode because HID lamps do not operate or use energy in either of these modes.

Finally, the DOE has extended through 20 January the deadline for interested parties to submit comments on a 24 October 2011 supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking involving residential central air conditioners and heat pumps. The notice proposes to revise the off-mode laboratory test steps and calculation algorithm set forth in an April 2011 notice to determine off-mode power consumption for these products. According to the DOE, the revised proposal would shorten the duration and burden of the off-mode testing while still adequately measuring the off-mode power consumption of the tested residential central air conditioner or heat pump. Specifically, the DOE proposes that the applicable test and calculation combination will depend on whether the tested unit is equipped with a crankcase heater and whether or not the crankcase heater operation is controlled by the unit during the test. Moreover, the DOE proposes to alter a calculation used to determine the overall off-mode rating for residential central air conditioners and heat pumps.