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PHONE 703 524 8800 | FAX 703 562 1942 | www.ahrinet.org October 2 , 2012

The Honorable Steven Chu Secretary of Energy U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue SW Washington, DC 20560

Re: Request for an 18

- month e xtension of the December 31 , 201 2 , effective d ate of

c ompliance with the certification and reporting requirements for commercial heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment

Dear Secretary Chu:

I’m writing to formally request that the Department of Energy (DOE) extend the December 31, 2012

, deadline for compliance with the certification and reporting requirements for commercial heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment by a minimum of 18 months from the date of publication of the Alternative Efficiency

Determination Method ( AEDM ) final rule . This e xtension is necessary because the Department has not finalized critical modifications to these certification and reporting requirements. Even when the ongoing rulemaking is completed

, m anufacturers need time to comply with the Department’s revised requirements

.

On March 7, 2011, DOE published a final rule adopting revisions to its certification, compliance and enforcement regulations for certain consumer products and commercial

and ind ustrial equipment covered under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). The rule required manufacturers to provide certification reports to the Department by July 5, 2011. At the urging of AHRI, the effective date of the rule was postponed t o Dece mber 31, 2012, so that DOE would be able to complete a rulemaking

on establishing an AEDM for commercial equipment . The AEDM is a critical element of

the DOE certification process as it will help manufacturers comply with the regulations without having to test every basic model they offer. Without an AEDM in place, manufacturers would be subject to enormous financial burdens which we estimate will

be over half a billion dollars in testing costs . In addition, since there are not enough testing facilities available to test the equipment according to the requirements contained in the March 7, 2011

, rule, the marketplace would be impacted as thousands of prod ucts could not be made available for sale for several years

.T h e H o n o r a b l e S t e v e n C h u

S e c r e t a r y o f E n e r g y P a g e | 2

It is unlikely that the final rule on the AEDM will be published before the end of the year and even if it is, the time required to meet the requirements contained in the final rule

cannot be co mpleted by December 31, 2012 . DOE has remained silent on the December 31, 2012

, effect ive date and has not responded to AHRI’s and

manufacturer s’ requests to postpone the effective date

. However, e ven if the rule were to be published in the next few days, adequate time would be needed for manufacturers to develop AEDMs, validate th em and rate their products. Furthermore, DOE has not
yet addressed how it will handle the enormous (trillions of rated combinations) data reporting requirement and has not e ven published the data reporting templates that would be used by manufacturers to provide the HVAC R product information.

Th erefore, AHRI is reque sting that the December 31, 2012

, effective date be postponed by a minimum of 18 months from the date of pub lication of the AEDM final rule. Failure to provide this time extension will effectively shut down an entire industry as manufacturers will not be in a position to certify their products to DOE according to the requirements of the March 7, 2011

, rule by t he end of the year and introduce them in

commerce.

This is a serious issue that needs im mediate attention. We sincerely hope that DOE will give full consideration to our request and extend the effective date of the certification and reporting requirements to allow manufacturers adequate time to be able to be in compliance with currently not finalized certification, compliance, and enforcement requirements

.

Sincerely

,

Stephen R. Yurek

President and CEO

Cc: David Danielson John Cymbalsky