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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 180 / Tuesday, September 21, 2021 / Proposed Rules
conservation standards for furnace standby mode and off mode electrical power consumption, PW,SB and PW,OFF, respectively, which account for all furnace electrical consumption in standby and off modes. 10 CFR
430.32e1iii. DOE has established an energy conservation standard for furnace fans using the FER metric, which is the ratio of the electrical energy consumption to airflow in watts per cubic feet per minute CFM. 10 CFR
430.32y. The FER metric measures performance during active mode when the fan is circulating air, but it does not include provisions for measuring standby mode and off mode energy consumption of furnace fans although appendix AA includes a section reserved for future provisions to address standby mode and off mode energy use, if necessary. Instead, the standby mode and off mode energy consumption for furnace fans is addressed by the test procedures and metrics for consumer furnaces and residential central air conditioners and heat pumps, as these products operate in conjunction with furnace fans. See 78 FR 19606, 19619
April 2, 2013.
The Administrative Procedure Act APA, 5 U.S.C. 551 et seq., provides among other things, that each agency shall give an interested person the right
to petition for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a rule. 5 U.S.C. 553e III. AHRIs Petition for Rulemaking Summary and Comments On October 12, 2018, DOE received a petition from AHRI AHRI Petition asking DOE to initiate notice-andcomment rulemaking to develop a new test procedure for residential furnaces and furnace fans which would replace the two currently required performance metrics for furnaces i.e., AFUE and PW,SB/PW,OFF and the one performance metric for furnace fans i.e., FER with a single new metric i.e., AFUE2.3 On November 14, 2018, DOE published a Notice of Petition for Rulemaking 2018 Notice of Petition for Rulemaking announcing the receipt of the AHRI Petition and inviting interested parties to submit comments.
83 FR 56746.
In the petition, AHRI suggested AFUE2 metric would account for furnace fuel, fan power, and standby mode and off mode power consumption, and the measured value would represent the sum of usable heat and fan benefit, divided by the total fuel and electricity consumed. AHRI, No. 2 at p.
2 4 AHRI asserted that transitioning to a single metric, such as AFUE2, would reduce regulatory burden on manufacturers by streamlining test
requirements and aligning regulatory review schedules, thereby promoting design flexibility and product innovation. AHRI, No. 2 at pp. 45 The petitioner further asserted that consumers would also benefit by having a single, combined metric for product comparison purposes and by receiving some portion of anticipated cost savings, all of which could be achieved without sacrificing energy savings.
AHRI, No. 2 at pp. 56 The petition acknowledges that a combined metric would necessitate a translation of the existing energy conservation standards applicable to residential furnaces and furnace fans. AHRI, No. 2 at pp. 67
Additionally, in a separate letter to DOE
dated November 2, 2018, AHRI
requested that DOE not enforce the reporting, certification and compliance obligations related to the furnace fan energy conservation standards pending consideration of their petition for rulemaking.5 AHRI, No. 3 at pp. 12
In the 2018 Notice of Petition for Rulemaking, DOE invited interested parties to submit comments regarding the petition. 83 FR 56746, 56746 Nov.
14, 2018. DOE received comments in response to the 2018 Notification of Petition for Rulemaking from the interested parties listed in Table II1.6
In the following discussion, DOE
addresses the relevant comments.

TABLE II1WRITTEN COMMENTS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO 2018 NOTIFICATION OF PETITION FOR RULEMAKING
Commenters
Abbreviation
Air-Conditioning Heating, and Refrigeration Institute
Alliance to Save Energy
Appliance Standards Awareness Project, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and Natural Resources Defense Council.
California Energy Commission
Carrier Corporation
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Consumer Federation of America and National Consumer Law Center
Earthjustice and the Sierra Club

AHRI
ASE
Joint Commenters

Trade Association.
Efficiency Organizations.
Efficiency Organizations.

CEC
Carrier
CT DEEP
Consumer Groups
Earthjustice and the Sierra Club.
Ingersoll Rand
Lennox
A.O. Smith
NEMA
National Grid
NRDC
NYSERDA
NEEP
NEEA
NPCC

State Agency.
Manufacturer.
State Agency.
Consumer Organizations.
Efficiency Organizations.

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Ingersoll Rand
Lennox International
Lochinvar/A.O. Smith Corporation
National Electric Manufacturers Association
National Grid
Natural Resources Defense Council
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
Northwest Power and Conservation Council
3 The AHRI Petition is available in the docket at www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EERE-2018-BTPET-0017-0002. The petition did not identify any of the information contained therein as confidential business information.
4 The parenthetical reference provides a reference for information located in the docket for the petition for rulemaking. Docket No. EERE2018
BTPET0017, which is maintained at www.regulations.gov. The references are arranged as follows: Commenter name, comment docket ID
number, page of that document.

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5 On November 2, 2018, DOE issued an enforcement policy stating that it would not enforce the testing, certification, and standards requirements for furnace fans while DOE
considered the 2018 Petition for Rulemaking. In response to the policy statement DOE received comments from a wide variety of parties as well as a letter from AHRI requesting that DOE rescind the enforcement policy. On February 11, 2019, DOE
rescinded the November 2, 2018 policy statement.
The request that DOE not enforce the furnace fan energy conservation pending consideration of the
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Commenter type
Manufacturer.
Manufacturer.
Manufacturer.
Trade Association.
Utilities.
Efficiency Organizations.
State Agency.
Efficiency Organizations.
Efficiency Organizations.
Utilities.

petition for rulemaking is not considered further in this document. The policy statement and rescission are available at www.energy.gov/gc/downloads/
furnace-fan-enforcement-policy.
6 Stakeholders comments can be accessed in the docket at www.regulations.gov/docket/EERE-2018BT-PET-0017. DOE also received several nonsubstantive comments or comments not relevant to the petition, which are not included in the table.

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