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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 extension of the December 31, 2012, effective date of 

compliance 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 extension is necessary because the 

Department has not finalized critical modifications to these certification and reporting 

requirements. Even when the ongoing rulemaking is completed, manufacturers 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 industrial 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 to December 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 

products 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 completed by December 31, 2012. DOE has remained silent on the 

December 31, 2012, effective date and has not responded to AHRI’s and 

manufacturers’ requests to postpone the effective date. However, even if the rule were 

to be published in the next few days, adequate time would be needed for manufacturers 

to develop AEDMs, validate them 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 even published the data reporting templates that 

would be used by manufacturers to provide the HVACR product information. 

Therefore, AHRI is requesting that the December 31, 2012, effective date be postponed 

by a minimum of 18 months from the date of publication 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 the end of the year and introduce them in 

commerce.

This is a serious issue that needs immediate 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