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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 58 / Monday, March 29, 2021 / Rules and Regulations LG Interim Waiver. Following the publication of the LG Interim Waiver, DOE conducted investigative testing to further analyze the air-enthalpy method and its suitability for testing room ACs.
This testing demonstrated that this method produced unrepresentative and inconsistent results and remedying these deficiencies likely would be unduly burdensome. See 84 FR 20111, 20117. May 8, 2019 In addition, the air-enthalpy method does not measure any heat transfer within and through the unit chassis, while the calorimeter test does. See Id. Because of the unrepresentative and inconsistent results obtained with the air-enthalpy test equipment that testing laboratories are likely to already own, as well as the higher cost and limited availability of equipment that would be necessary to obtain consistent results for all room ACs of differing airflow rates, DOE
contended that the air-enthalpy test method would be unduly burdensome for testing laboratories to implement for room ACs at this time. DOE further noted that, in the waivers granted since the publication of the LG Interim Waiver, DOE did not allow the airenthalpy test method as an alternative to the calorimeter test method due to the concerns outlined above. 84 FR 20111, 20117 May 8, 2019, 84 FR 68159, 68162 Dec. 13, 2019. In the June 2020
NOPR, DOE did not propose to include an optional alternative air-enthalpy test method for variable-speed room ACs in appendix F. 85 FR 35700, 35712 Jun.
11, 2020.
The California IOUs supported DOEs proposal to exclude the air-enthalpy test from the room AC test procedure. The California IOUs commented that DOEs testing demonstrated that this method was unrepresentative and inconsistent, and remedying those deficiencies would be unduly burdensome. California IOUs, No. 14 at pp. 56
For the reasons discussed in the preceding paragraphs and in the June 2020 NOPR, DOE is not adopting the air-enthalpy test method for the testing of variable-speed room ACs in this final rule.
9. Product Specific Reporting Provisions As described, the amendments to appendix F to test variable-speed room ACs at multiple cooling mode test conditions will require the use of fixed temperature conditions with a unit thermostat setpoint of 75 F, using the same specifications for single-speed room AC controls given in appendix F, rather than using the manufacturer instructions to fix the compressor speed for variable-speed room ACs at the 95 F
and 92 F test conditions. The
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amendments to appendix F will also require the compressor speed to be fixed to intermediate speed at the 87 F test condition and low speed at the 82 F test condition, as discussed and defined in section III.D.1.b of this document and in Sections 2.15 and 2.16, respectively, in appendix F.
In the June 2020 NOPR, to ensure test reproducibility, DOE proposed requiring in 10 CFR 429.15 that manufacturers provide DOE all necessary instructions to maintain the compressor speeds required for each test condition for a variable-speed basic model, as additional product-specific information pursuant to 10 CFR 429.12 b13. 85
FR 35700, 35713 Jun. 11, 2020. DOE
expected that this requirement would add a de minimis incremental burden to the existing reporting requirements. Id.
DOE received no comments on this proposal.
DOE is including in 10 CFR 429.15
reporting requirements for compressor frequencies and control settings at the 87 F and 82 F test conditions as additional product-specific information for certification of each variable-speed room AC basic model. Note that, unlike the proposal in the June 2020 NOPR, DOE is not requiring reporting of the compressor frequency and control settings as additional product-specific information for certification for the 95 F
and 92 F test conditions for variablespeed units, as discussed in section III.C.3 of this final rule. Manufacturers may request treatment of reported material as confidential business information pursuant to the regulations at 10 CFR 1004.11.
10. Estimated Annual Operating Cost Calculation In the June 2020 NOPR, in conjunction with the amendments for testing variable-speed room ACs, DOE
proposed corresponding amendments to the calculation that provides the basis of the annual energy consumption and operating cost information presented to consumers on the EnergyGuide Label.
85 FR 35700, 35713 Jun. 11, 2020.
These changes would allow for an appropriate comparison of the annual energy consumption and operating costs between single-speed room ACs and variable-speed room ACs. As such, in the June 2020 NOPR, DOE proposed that for variable-speed room ACs, the average annual energy consumption used in calculating the estimated annual operating cost in 10 CFR 430.23f would be a weighted average of the annual energy consumption at each of the four test conditions in newly added Table 1 of appendix F and the annual energy consumption in inactive mode or
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off mode. Id. DOE provided, however, that the electrical power input reported for variable-speed room ACs for purposes of certification in 10 CFR
429.15b2 would be the value measured at the 95 F rating condition, to maintain consistency with the cooling capacity measured at the same condition. Id.
The California IOUs asserted that the proposed methods for calculating the annual operating costs will create market confusion, mainly because the variable-speed annual operating energy consumption would be based on a weighted average that includes and heavily weights conditions at which the unit provides less cooling, whereas the average annual energy consumption of a single-speed unit would continue to be based on the 95 F condition, at which the unit provides more cooling and thus consumes more energy. The California IOUs stated that using different test procedures and energy consumption calculations for different equipment that provide the same consumer utility, in this case, space conditioning, has the potential to create market distortions.
California IOUs, No. 14 at p. 2
Conceptually, variable-speed room ACs and single-speed room ACs both deliver the same amount of cooling to a room, albeit in different ways. The variable-speed room AC provides constant cooling at a reduced rate, while the single-speed room AC switches on to provide maximum cooling for a period of time before switching off and providing no cooling until the temperature in the room rises again. In both cases, the total amount of cooling provided to the room remains the same, only the power consumed by the unit to provide the cooling is different.
Furthermore, the test procedure adopted in this final rule assesses the improved efficiency associated with variablespeed room ACs relative to single-speed room ACs, on the basis of adjusted operation at varying, reducedtemperature operating conditions and accounting for reduced energy use associated with eliminating cycling losses. This approach of factoring in reduced-temperature operation over the varying load conditions during the operating hours of the cooling season is thus appropriate for variable-speed units but not for single-speed units.
For the reasons discussed above, as proposed in the June 2020 NOPR, DOE
is requiring that the average annual energy consumption used in calculating the estimated annual operating cost of variable-speed room ACs in 10 CFR
430.23f be a weighted average of the annual energy consumption at each of the four test conditions in newly added
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