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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 232 / Tuesday, December 7, 2021 / Proposed Rules
B. Background As stated, DOEs existing test procedures for ceiling fans appear at Appendix U. DOE published a final rule in the Federal Register on July 25, 2016
July 2016 Final Rule, which amended the test procedures for ceiling fans at Appendix U. 81 FR 48620, 48622. On September 30, 2019, DOE
published a NOPR September 2019
NOPR proposing amendments to the test procedure addressing questions received from interested parties. 84 FR
51440. In the September 2019 NOPR, DOE proposed to interpret the term suspended from a ceiling in the EPCA

definition of ceiling fan to mean offered for mounting only on a ceiling; specify that very small-diameter VSD
ceiling fans that do not also meet the definition of low-speed small-diameter LSSD ceiling fan are not required to be tested pursuant to the DOE test method; for LSSD and VSD ceiling fans, increase the tolerance for the stability criteria for the average air velocity measurements during low speed tests;
specify that large-diameter ceiling fans with blade spans greater than 24 feet do not need to be tested pursuant to the DOE test method; codify current guidance on calculating several values
reported on the U.S. Federal Trade Commissions FTC EnergyGuide label for LSSD and VSD ceiling fans;
and amend certification requirements and product-specific enforcement provisions to reflect the current test procedures and recently amended energy conservation standards for ceiling fans. 84 FR 51440, 51442.
Additionally, on October 17, 2019, DOE
hosted a public meeting to present the September 2019 NOPR proposals.
Table I.1 lists a subset of comments received by DOE in response to the September 2019 NOPR that are relevant to this SNOPR.

TABLE I.1SUBSET OF COMMENTS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO SEPTEMBER 2019 NOPR THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THIS
SNOPR
Commenters
Reference in this SNOPR

Air Movement and Control Association International
American Lighting Association
Anonymous
Big Ass Fans
Chris Ransom
Hunter Fan Company
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison.

AMCA
ALA
Anonymous
BAF
Ransom
Hunter
CA IOUs

Commenter type Trade Association.
Trade Association.
Individual Commenter.
Manufacturer.
Individual Commenter.
Manufacturer.
Utilities.

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DOE received two separate comment submissions from AMCA; however, the second comment replaced the first. See comment number 33 in the docket replacing comment number 30.

A parenthetical reference at the end of a comment quotation or paraphrase provides the location of the item in the public record.5 This SNOPR only discusses a subset of topics under consideration as part of this test procedure rulemaking and not all comments received in response to the September 2019 NOPR are addressed in this SNOPR. Comments not addressed in this SNOPR will be addressed in the next stages of the rulemaking.
DOE, with the support of the ALA, conducted a round robin test program for ceiling fans to observe laboratory setups and test practices, evaluate within-laboratory variation i.e., repeatability and assess betweenlaboratory consistency i.e., reproducibility. Round robin testing was conducted from January 2019 to April 2020. Six test laboratories participated in the round robin, representing both manufacturer laboratories and third-party laboratories.
Four laboratories are located in North America, and two are located in China.
ALA and ceiling fan manufacturers 5 The parenthetical reference provides a reference for information located in the docket of DOEs rulemaking to develop test procedures for ceiling fans. Docket No. EERE2013BTTP0050, which is maintained at www.regulations.gov/docket/EERE2013-BT-TP-0050. The references are arranged as follows: Commenter name, comment docket ID
number, page of that document.

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supplied two samples each of five ceiling fan models for a total of 10 test samples. The laboratories were instructed to test according to appendix U. DOE representatives were present during all testing to observe test setups and practices used in a variety of labs.
In this SNOPR, DOE includes several proposals based on test results and observations made during round robin testing. The round robin test report has been separately published in the docket.6
On May 27, 2021, DOE published a final rule to amend the current regulations for large-diameter ceiling fans. 86 FR 28469 May 2021 Technical Amendment The contents of these technical amendments correspond with provisions enacted by Congress through the Energy Act of 2020. Id. Specifically, section 1008 of the Energy Act of 2020
amended section 325ff6 of EPCA to specify that large-diameter ceiling fans manufactured on or after January 21, 2020, are not required to meet minimum ceiling fan efficiency requirements in terms of the ratio of the total airflow to the total power consumption as established in a final rule published January 19, 2017 82 FR 6826; January 6 The docketed round robin report can be found in the rulemaking docket EERE2013BTTP0050.
www.regulations.gov/docket/EERE-2013-BT-TP0050.

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2017 Final Rule, and instead are required to meet specified minimum efficiency requirements based on the Ceiling Fan Energy Index CFEI
metric. 86 FR 28469, 2846928470. The May 2021 Technical Amendment also implemented conforming amendments to the ceiling fan test procedure to ensure consistency with the Energy Act of 2020. 86 FR 28469, 28470.
On May 7, 2021, DOE published an early assessment request for information RFI undertaking an early assessment review for amended energy conservation standards for ceiling fans to determine whether to amend applicable energy conservation standards for this product.
86 FR 24538 May 2021 RFI.
II. Synopsis of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking In this SNOPR, DOE proposes to update appendix U as follows:
1 Specify that for the purpose of the ceiling fan definition, circulating air means the discharge of air in an upward or downward direction with the air returning to the intake side of the fan. A ceiling fan that has a ratio of fan blade span in inches to maximum rotation rate in revolutions per minute greater than 0.06 provides circulating air;
2 Extend the scope of the test procedure to include large diameter fans with a diameter greater than 24 feet;

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