The Regional Standards Agreement for Residential Furnaces,Air Conditioners, and Heat Pumps: Process, Results, and Implications

摘要

On October 13, 2009, HVAC equipment manufacturers and efficiency advocates signedrnan agreement on regional standards for residential furnaces, central air conditioners, and heatrnpumps. The agreement is without precedent. If accepted by Congress and the Department ofrnEnergy, it will profoundly change strategies for achieving greater energy efficiency. First, thernagreement will avoid the long, expensive, and unpredictable process of a DOE rule-making,rngiving manufacturers predictable standards to meet with cost-effective, innovative, products.rnSecond, the agreement will ultimately shift some enforcement responsibility from manufacturersrnto distributors, contractors, and local officials, because efficiency levels will vary regionally. Inrnaddition, the agreement reaches out to call for changes to building codes that will lead to morernefficient structures by allowing states to increase the standards for reference buildings in newrnhomes.rnWork on the potential of regional standards began early in the decade, in a USDOENASEOrnState Technology Advancement Collaborative (STAC)-funded project sponsored byrnCalifornia, New York, Wisconsin, and Florida. Its results, guided by an advisory panel, led tornlanguage in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) 2007 requiring DOE to evaluaternthe potential of regional HVAC standards. Frank, intensive, negotiations among all stakeholdersrnaccelerated in early 2009. Assuming legislative acceptance and/or a DOE implementation of thernagreement in a direct final rule, the new furnace standards will take effect in 2013 and airrnconditioner-heat pump standards in 2015. We estimate that the proposed standards would save 3rnquads of primary energy by 2030, with another 0.7 quad from the building code provisions.