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Public Meeting for Test Procedures for 

Battery Chargers and External Power Supplies

May 7, 2010—Washington, D.C. 

Issues for Stakeholder Comment

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a NOPR for Test Procedures for Battery 

Chargers and External Power Supplies, 75 FR 16958 (April 2, 2010). While DOE invites 

comments from interested parties on all aspects of the material presented in the NOPR, there are 

several issues in particular on which DOE seeks comment. These are specifically requested in 

the NOPR and are flagged in issues boxes in the associated public meeting presentation. 

The list of issues both from the NOPR and to be presented in today’s public meeting presentation 

is reproduced below, grouped according to their appearance in the NOPR. 

1. BC Active Mode Test Procedure 

Item 1 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the proposed approach for 

testing BCs in active mode, in particular the adoption and modification of the CEC test 

procedure.

Scope

Item 2 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the proposed limitation of scope 

of the test procedure to encompass BCs with DC or U.S. line voltage AC input.

Item 3 DOE seeks comment on including BCs for golf carts and other consumer motive 

equipment batteries in a single test procedure based on part 1 of the CEC BC test 

procedure.

Definitions

Item 4 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the adoption of new definitions, 

in particular any deviation from those currently in the CEC test procedure.

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Issues for Comment

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Test Apparatus and General Instructions

Item 5 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the proposed modifications to 

section II of the CEC test procedure intended to ease testing burden, and in particular, 

recommendations on which charge rates are most representative of typical use.

Item 6 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the batteries that are typically 

used with BCs that are packaged with multiple batteries or packaged without batteries 

(e.g., AA and AAA and 12 volt lead-acid chargers) as well as the testing burdens 

associated with testing such chargers multiple times under the battery selection method 

currently in the CEC test procedure.

Item 7 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the categorization of non-battery 

charging functions and its intention not to make allowances for energy consumption due 

to additional functionality.

Item 8 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the proposed revision to section 

II.G of the CEC test procedure to explicitly lay out the iterative steps required to 

measure battery capacity when none is provided.

Test Measurement

Item 9 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the proposal to strike the inactive 

mode energy consumption measurement from section 4(a) of appendix Y.

Item 10 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the optional method of 

shortening the charge and maintenance mode test period in the proposed active mode 

amendment to the BC test procedure, in particular its impacts on testing burden and the 

accuracy and repeatability of the measurement.

Item 11 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the proposed reversal of the 

CEC test procedure order, resulting in: The battery being (1) conditioned (if necessary); 

(2) charged until full by the BC under test, in preparation for the measurement; (3) 

discharged; and (4) recharged by the BC under test. The discharge energy in step (3) and 

the input power to the BC in step (4), above, would be measured.

Item 12 DOE seeks comment from interested parties on the end-of-discharge voltages 

for the nanophosphate lithium-ion and silver-zinc chemistries that are proposed for 

inclusion in Table 5.2 in appendix Y.

2. BC and EPS Standby and Off Mode Test Procedures

Item 13 DOE also invites comment on the proposed test method for measuring standby 

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mode and off mode energy consumption for EPSs, including whether the duration of the 

measurement is sufficiently long.

3. Single-Voltage EPS Active Mode Test Procedure

Item 14 DOE seeks comment on the possible modification of the single-voltage EPS 

test procedure to accommodate EPSs that must communicate with their loads; in 

particular the prevalence of such EPSs, the need to amend the test procedure to 

accommodate them, and suggestions on amendments.

Item 15 DOE seeks comment on the possible further modification of the single voltage 

EPS test procedure to accommodate EPSs with output current limiting and high output 

power.

4. Multiple-Voltage EPS Active Mode Test Procedure

Item 16 DOE seeks comments on all issues pertaining to testing of multiple-voltage 

EPSs. In particular, DOE invites comments on reporting 5 separate loading conditions 

(no-load, 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent of nameplate output current) without averaging the 

results. Additionally, DOE seeks comment on how it should weigh these measurements 

in an energy conservation standards rulemaking for multiple-voltage EPSs.

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