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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 158 / Thursday, August 19, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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B. Background On June 28, 2011, DOE published a notice of proposed determination of coverage proposing to determine that fans, blowers, and fume hoods qualify as covered equipment June 2011
NOPD. 76 FR 37678. DOE noted that there are no statutory definitions for fan, blower, or fume hood, and presented definitions for consideration.
76 FR 37678, 37679.
In the June 2011 NOPD, DOE
preliminarily determined that coverage of fans, blowers, and fume hoods is necessary to carry out the purposes of Part A1 because coverage would promote the conservation of energy supplies. 76 FR 37678, 37680. DOE
estimated that technologies exist which can reduce the electricity consumption of fans and blowers by as much as 20
percent and that there are technologies and design strategies for fume hoods that could reduce energy use by 50
percent. Id. DOE requested comment on the proposed definitions and its preliminary determination that coverage of fans, blowers, and fume hoods is necessary to carry out the purposes of Part A1. 76 FR 37678, 37682.
DOE received seven comments in response to the June 2011 NOPD from the interested parties listed in Table II
1 of this document.
DOE subsequently published a framework document 4 detailing an analytical approach for developing potential energy conservation standards for commercial and industrial fans and blowers should the Secretary classify such equipment as covered equipment.
78 FR 7306 Feb. 1, 2013. In the January 2013 Framework Document, DOE also requested feedback from interested parties generally on issues related to test methods for evaluating the energy efficiency of commercial and industrial fans and blowers January 2013
Framework Document at pp. 1625.
In the January 2013 Framework Document DOE determined that it lacks authority to establish energy conservation standards for fume hoods because fume hoods are not listed as a type of equipment for which DOE could establish standards January 2013
Framework Document at p. 15. DOE
acknowledged that the fan that provides ventilation for the fume hood consumes the largest portion of energy within the fume hood system, and that DOE
planned to cover all commercial and 4 Energy Conservation Standards Rulemaking Framework for Commercial and Industrial Fans and Blowers January 2013 Framework Document is included in Docket EERE2013BTSTD0006 and available at www.regulations.gov/
document?D=EERE-2013-BT-STD-0006-0001.

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industrial fan types, which includes fans used to ventilate fume hoods. Id.
On December 10, 2014, DOE
published a notice of data availability that presented a provisional analysis estimating the economic impacts and energy savings from potential energy conservation standards for certain fans and blowers. 79 FR 73246.
On April 1, 2015, DOE published a notice of intent to establish a negotiated rulemaking working group under the Appliance Standards and Rulemaking Federal Advisory Committee hereafter referred to as the Working Group to negotiate proposed definitions, and, as applicable, certain aspects of a proposed test procedure and proposed energy conservation standards for fans and blowers. 80 FR 17359. On May 1, 2015, DOE published a second notice of data availability of a revised provisional analysis of the potential economic impacts and energy savings that could result from promulgating an energy conservation standard for commercial and industrial fans and blowers. 80 FR
24841 May 2015 NODA.
The Working Group 5 negotiations comprised 16 meetings and three webinars and covered scope, metrics, test procedures, and energy conservation standard levels for fans and blowers.6 The Working Group concluded its negotiations on September 3, 2015, and approved by consensus vote 7 a term sheet containing recommendations for DOE on scope, energy conservation standards, and a test procedure for the subject industrial equipment. The term sheet containing the Working Group recommendations is available in the commercial and 5 The Working Group was comprised of representatives from AAON, Inc.; AcoustiFLO LLC;
AGS Consulting LLC; AMCA; AHRI, Appliance Standards Awareness Project; Berner International Corp; Buffalo Air Handling Company; Carnes Company; Daikin/Goodman; ebm-papst; Greenheck;
Morrison Products; Natural Resources Defense Council; Newcomb & Boyd; Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance; CA IOUs; Regal Beloit Corporation; Rheem Manufacturing Company;
Smiley Engineering LLC representing Ingersoll Rand/Trane; SPX Cooling Technologies/CTI; The New York Blower Company; Twin City Companies, Ltd; U.S. Department of Energy; and United Technologies/Carrier 6 Details of the negotiation sessions can be found in the public meeting transcripts that are posted to the docket for the energy conservation standard rulemaking at: www.regulations.gov/
docket?D=EERE-2013-BT-STD-0006.
7 At the beginning of the negotiated rulemaking process, the Working Group defined that before any vote could occur, the Working Group must establish a quorum of at least 20 of the 25 members and defined consensus as an agreement with less than 4 negative votes. Twenty voting members of the Working Group were present for this vote. Two members Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute and Ingersoll Rand/Trane voted no on the term sheet.

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industrial fans and blowers energy conservation standard rulemaking docket. Docket No. EERE2013BT
STD0006, No. 179 ASRAC approved the term sheet on September 24, 2015.
Docket No. EERE2013BTNOC0005;
Public Meeting Transcript, No. 58, at p.
29 On November 1, 2016, DOE
published a third notice of data availability November 2016 NODA
that presented a revised analysis based on the scope and metric recommendations of the term sheet. 81
FR 75742.
On January 10, 2020, DOE received a petition from the Air Movement and Control Association, International AMCA, Air Conditioning Contractors of America, and Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors of America requesting that DOE establish a Federal test procedure for certain categories of fans based on an upcoming industry test method, AMCA Standard 214, Test Procedure for Calculating Fan Energy Index FEI for Commercial and Industrial Fans and Blowers DOE
published a notice of petition and request for public comment April 2020 Notice of Petition. 85 FR 22677
Apr. 23, 2020. AMCA, Air Conditioning Contractors of America, and Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors have since withdrawn their petition AMCA, No.12, at p. 1.8
In preparation for this notice, on May 10, 2021, DOE published a request for information requesting comments on a potential fan or blower definition. 86 FR
24752 May 2021 RFI.
On February 14, 2020, DOE published in the Federal Register a final rule which updated the procedures, interpretations, and policies that DOE
will follow in the consideration and promulgation of new or revised appliance energy conservation standards and test procedures under EPCA. 85 FR 8626; see also 10 CFR part 430, subpart C, appendix A i.e., Process Rule. The updated Process Rule establishes the process DOE must follow when undertaking a determination of whether industrial equipment should be covered under EPCA. Section 5 of the Process Rule.
8 The parenthetical reference provides a reference for information located in DOE Docket No. EERE
2011BTDET0045. The references are arranged as follows: Commenter name, comment docket ID
number, page of that document. If one comment was submitted with multiple attachments, the references are arranged as follows: Commenter name, comment docket ID number, attachment number, page of that document. The attachment number corresponds to the order in which the attachment appears in the docket. If the information was submitted to a different DOE docket, the DOE
Docket number is additionally specified in the reference.

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