Appliance Design - January 2008 - (Page 8)

NEwS watch DOE RulES ON FuRNacE StaNDaRDS he U.S. Department of Energy increased the energy efficiency standards for residential furnaces and boilers. The ruling was derided by environment groups and applauded by industry. For its part, the DOE estimates that the new standard will save the equivalent of the total amount of energy consumed by 2.5 million American households in a year or approximately 0.25 quadrillion (10x15) (BTUs) of energy over a period from 2015 to 2038. The revised standards will become effective in 2015 and concern residential nonweatherized and weatherized gas furnaces, mobile home gas furnaces, oil-fired furnaces, and gas-fired and oil-fired boilers. The standard replaces requirements that were issued in 1987 and went into effect in 1992. The new standard includes: 4An 80 percent AFUE standard for indoor aNSI NOD tO ahaM. The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers’ performance evaluation procedure for household refrigerators, refrigeratorfreezers and freezers has gained approval from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as an American National Standard. The standard, ANSI/AHAM HRF-1-2007, Energy, Performance and Capacity of Household Refrigerators, Refrigerator-Freezers and Freezers, supersedes the 2004 edition. It contains methods for computing total volume, volume of special features and shelf area; energy consumption and energy factor of household refrigerators, household wine chillers and household freezers; performance test procedures and recommended levels of performance; durability and conden- t gas furnaces, which is up from 78 percent. 4An 81 percent AFUE standard for outdoor gas furnaces. 4An 82 percent AFUE for gas boilers, which is up from 80 percent. Last year, the DOE had proposed to adopt an 83 percent AFUE for outdoor gas furnaces and an 84 percent AFUE for gas boilers, but was dissuaded by industry arguments that those levels present serious condensation and corrosion risks for those products, says GAMA Vice President and General Counsel Joseph Mattingly. “It was a relief to us that they backed off on those standards,” he says. “Had they not, we would have had to challenge the Final Rule.” A coalition of consumer, energy, and environmental groups criticized the DOE’s ruling, saying that it changed little from the original levels set 20 years ago. Energy efficiency advocates had been calling for a 90 sate test procedures; and safety of household refrigerators, household wine chillers and household freezers. Results of tests in accordance with this standard may be publicly stated. The revised standard contains an insertion that clarifies how the test method is intended to provide an accurate energy calculation. It specifies that conditions that occur in a typical home should be simulated during the energy test. AHAM has requested that the U.S. Department of Energy incorporate the AHAM language into its refrigerator and freezer test procedures as a clarification of how these products’ energy use should be measured. A second AHAM standard, which oversees the compatibility between appliances, has been reaffirmed by ANSI as a percent AFUE standard, which about a third of the gas furnaces sold already meet, or for regional standards with more stringent requirement in cold weather areas. The DOE rejected both arguments. It says that the new standards are technically feasible and take into account the risks that higher efficiency units may run. The agency also stated that it had no authority to issue regional standards. The ruling was part of the DOE’s courtmandated plan to eliminate a 30-year backlog on appliance standards. The agency plans to implement standards for 18 appliances over the next five years. DOE Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner said that the agency intends to maintain, and, where possible, “accelerate the extraordinary progress we have made over the last two years.” < national standard. The standard, which was originally released in 2003, will be known as the ANSI/AHAM CHA-1-2003 (R 2007), Connected Home AppliancesObject Modeling. The standard describes generic appliance models, objects and high-level messages. The models define standardized elements of appliances that are accessible and controllable remotely by users, service providers, and other devices independently of the underlying communications network. GREENER SOONER. Whirlpool Corp- oration of Benton Harbor, Mich., plans to increase its commitment to environmentally-sound business practices by reducing total greenhouse gas emissions by 6.6 www.applianceDESIGN.com 8 applianceDESIGN January 2008 http://www.appliancedesign.com

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Appliance Design - January 2008 Contents Editorial Shipments/Forecasts News Watch Makers of Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Turn to Variable-Speed Motors to Improve Energy Efficiency. New Motor Design and Control Scheme Makes Brushless Motors More Economically Feasible for a Wider Range of Applications. External Gas Molding, a Relatively New Technique, Solves Many of the Challenges Associated with the Injection Molding of Large Plastic Parts. Plastic Housings Offer Many Benefits: EMI Protection Isn't One of Them. But, New Materials and Techniques are Solving that Problem. Choosing the Optimal Strategy for Effective EMI Shielding Depends on Both Mechanical and Electrical Requirements Ethernet-Enabled Microcontroller Makes Networking Schemes Easier and More Cost Effective to Implement The Ever-Changing Array of Microcontroller Memory Options Makes it Imperative to Keep Abreast of What's Available to Determine the Optimal Choice for an Application. A Vast Range of Components and Finished Products will be Exhibited at the Country's Preeminent HVAC/R Show, AHR Expo, which is Scheduled for Jan. 22-24 in New York. Advertiser's Index Association Report: PRBA

Appliance Design - January 2008

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