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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 188 / Friday, October 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules sections discuss DOEs authority to establish test procedures for fans and blowers, including air circulating fan heads ACFHs, as well as relevant background information regarding DOEs consideration of potential test procedures for this equipment.
A. Authority and Background EPCA authorizes DOE to regulate the energy efficiency of a number of consumer products and certain industrial equipment. 42 U.S.C. 6291
6317 Title III, Part C 2 of EPCA, added by Public Law 95619, Title IV, section 441a 42 U.S.C. 63116317, as codified, established the Energy Conservation Program for Certain Industrial Equipment, which sets forth a variety of provisions designed to improve energy efficiency of certain commercial and industrial equipment hereafter referred to as covered equipment. The purpose of Part A1
is to improve the efficiency of electric motors and pumps and certain other industrial equipment in order to conserve the energy resources of the Nation. 42 U.S.C. 6312a EPCA specifies a list of equipment that constitutes covered equipment.3
EPCA also provides that covered equipment includes any other type of industrial equipment for which the Secretary of Energy Secretary determines inclusion is necessary to carry out the purpose of Part A1. 42
U.S.C. 63111L; 42 U.S.C. 6312b EPCA specifies the types of equipment that can be classified as industrial equipment. 42 U.S.C. 63112B. This equipment includes fans and blowers.
42 U.S.C. 63112Bii and iii.
Industrial equipment must be of a type that consumes, or is designed to consume, energy in operation; is distributed in commerce for industrial or commercial use 4; and is not a covered product as defined in 42 U.S.C.
2 For editorial reasons, upon codification in the U.S. Code, Part C was redesignated Part A1 and hereafter referred to as Part A1.
3 Covered equipment means one of the following types of industrial equipment: Electric motors and pumps; small commercial package air conditioning and heating equipment; large commercial package air conditioning and heating equipment; very large commercial package air conditioning and heating equipment; commercial refrigerators, freezers, and refrigerator-freezers;
automatic commercial ice makers; walk-in coolers and walk-in freezers; commercial clothes washers;
packaged terminal air-conditioners and packaged terminal heat pumps; warm air furnaces and packaged boilers; and storage water heaters, instantaneous water heaters, and unfired hot water storage tanks. 42 U.S.C. 63111AK
4 DOE notes that distribution for residential use does not preclude coverage as covered equipment so long as the equipment is of a type that is also distributed in commerce for industrial and commercial use.

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6291a2 of EPCA other than a component of a covered product with respect to which there is in effect a determination under section 6312c.
42 U.S.C. 63112A.
On August 19, 2021, DOE determined that the inclusion of fans and blowers as covered equipment was necessary to carry out the purpose of Part A1 and classified fans and blowers as covered equipment. 86 FR 46579.
The energy conservation program under EPCA consists essentially of four parts: 1 Testing, 2 labeling, 3
Federal energy conservation standards, and 4 certification and enforcement procedures. Relevant provisions of EPCA include definitions 42 U.S.C.
6311, test procedures 42 U.S.C. 6314, labeling provisions 42 U.S.C. 6315, energy conservation standards 42
U.S.C. 6313, and the authority to require information and reports from manufacturers 42 U.S.C. 6316.
Federal energy efficiency requirements for covered equipment established under EPCA generally supersede State laws and regulations concerning energy conservation testing, labeling, and standards. 42 U.S.C.
6316a and b; 42 U.S.C. 6297. DOE
may, however, grant waivers of Federal preemption for particular State laws or regulations, in accordance with the procedures and other provisions of EPCA. 42 U.S.C. 6316b2D.
The Federal testing requirements consist of test procedures that manufacturers of covered equipment must use as the basis for: 1 Certifying to DOE that their equipment complies with the applicable energy conservation standards adopted pursuant to EPCA 42
U.S.C. 6316a; 42 U.S.C. 6295s, and 2 making representations about the efficiency of that equipment 42 U.S.C.
6314d. Similarly, DOE must use these test procedures to determine whether the equipment complies with relevant standards promulgated under EPCA.5
42 U.S.C. 6316a; 42 U.S.C. 6295s Under 42 U.S.C. 6314, EPCA sets forth the criteria and procedures DOE must follow when prescribing or amending test procedures for covered equipment.
EPCA requires that any test procedures prescribed or amended under this section must be reasonably designed to produce test results which reflect energy efficiency, energy use or estimated annual operating cost of a given type of covered equipment during a representative average use cycle and requires that test procedures not be unduly burdensome to conduct. 42
U.S.C. 6314a2
5 There are currently no energy conservation standards for fans and blowers.

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Before prescribing any final test procedures under this section, the Secretary must publish proposed test procedures in the Federal Register, and afford interested persons an opportunity of not less than 45 days duration to present oral and written data, views, and arguments on the proposed test procedures. 42 U.S.C. 6314b B. Rulemaking History As noted, on August 19, 2021, DOE
published in the Federal Register a final coverage determination classifying fans and blowers as covered equipment August 2021 Final Coverage Determination. 86 FR 46579. DOE
established that the term blower is interchangeable with the term fan. 86
FR 46579, 46583. DOE also defined a fan or blower as a rotary bladed machine used to convert electrical or mechanical power to air power, with an energy output limited to 25 kilojoule kJ/kilogram kg of air. It consists of an impeller, a shaft and bearings and/or driver to support the impeller, as well as a structure or housing. A fan or blower may include a transmission, driver, and/or motor controller. 86 FR
46579, 46590; See 10 CFR 431.172.
Further, DOE determined that fans and blowers are industrial equipment as specified by EPCA and classified fans and blowers as covered equipment.6
The definition of industrial equipment explicitly excludes covered products, other than a component of a covered product. 42 U.S.C.
63112Aiii. Therefore, the definition of fan and blower does not apply to ceiling fans or furnace fans, both covered products defined at 10
CFR 430.2. 86 FR 46579, 4658446585.
To date DOE has not proposed test procedures or energy conservation standards for fans and blowers. Prior to the August 2021 Final Coverage Determination, on January 10, 2020, DOE received a petition from AMCA, Air Conditioning Contractors of America, and Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors of America the Petitioners requesting that DOE
establish test procedures for certain categories of commercial and industrial fans based on an upcoming industry test method, AMCA 214.7 DOE published a 6 Industrial equipment is any article of specifically listed equipment that is of a type, which 1 in operation consumes, or is designed to consume, energy; 2 to any significant extent, is distributed in commerce for industrial or commercial use; 3 is not a covered product, and 4 for which the Secretary has determined coverage is necessary to carry out the purpose of Part A1.
42 U.S.C. 63112A; 42 U.S.C. 6312b 7 At the time of the petition, AMCA 21421 was available as a draft version AMCA 214.

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