On January 19, the CEE Board of Directors approved a revision to the High-Efficiency Commercial Unitary Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps specification.

With new federal minimum standards set to take place in January 2008 for small commercial unitary equipment (and January 2010 for larger unitary equipment), CEE’s Commercial HVAC committee determined that a specification revision was appropriate at this time.

Committee research had revealed that today’s top-performing models were 5-15 percent more efficient than the tier level promoted in the 2006 specification.

After a review of the latest performance data from the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) directory and manufacturer correspondence, two additional tiers for unitary air Conditioning and heat pump efficiency levels were developed.

“The new specification represents three performance levels based upon demonstrated equipment performance,” said CEE Commercial Program Manager Afroz Khan.

For unitary heat pumps rated at 65,000 Btu/hr. or greater, the Commercial HVAC Committee did not develop a performance level in Tiers 2 and 3 because of limited equipment availability.

The revised specifications are available on the CEE Web site.

For further information about CEE’s Commercial HVAC Initiative, contact Afroz Khan at 617-589-3949, ext. 208.

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