On April 16, the CEE Board of Directors approved changes to three initiatives—High Efficiency Gas Water Heating, High Performance Commercial Lighting Systems, and Commercial Unitary HVAC. In addition, the board approved continuation and expansion of the CEE-AHRI HVAC database, a CEE supplemental project funded by CEE member sponsors.

High Efficiency Gas Water Heating
On a recommendation from Executive Director Marc Hoffman, the Board changed the gas water heating initiative. At the time the initiative was approved in January, most, but not all, directors felt that it made sense that the ANSI flammable vapor ignition technologies safety standard for traditional residential storage water heaters should be applicable to larger units. Since then, directors have delved further into the issue and have been unable to find any basis to address the flammable vapor ignition aspect of heaters with a capacity greater than 75,000 Btu/h.

Rather than jeopardize the integrity of our process with an unfounded assumption, the Board agreed that the initiative be revised to exclude the class of water heater not covered by these ANSI requirements. ENERGY STAR^® had come to the same conclusion.

High Performance Commercial Lighting Systems
Industry partners recommended a color rendering index (CRI) specification change for technical reasons to the commercial lighting committee. The change, which lowers the CRI from 81 to 80 and is not energy related, allows lamps with a higher color temperature to qualify, thus increasing the number of high performance T8 products available. On investigation, the committee found that there is no visual impact from the change. In addition, some programs have already made the change on their own to accept these lamps. The committee worked with manufacturers and with NEMA, who wrote a letter of support, to make sure all points of view were heard, but no one was against the change. The CEE Board approved the recommendation.

Commercial HVAC Specifications
This month, the HVAC market will officially cap a transition to 13 SEER minimums, bringing commercial equipment on par with residential.

In consultation with the HVAC industry, CEE finalized higher performance requirements for small commercial air conditioners and heat pumps on January 22, 2007. CEE retained a 13 SEER tier at that time, but planned to drop the tier when a new federal minimum went into effect. These tiers covered three-phase central air conditioners and heat pumps rated at less than 65,000 Btu/h.

Voluntary energy efficiency programs have been instrumental in spurring industry efforts to manufacture and install high efficiency products. Due in part to market acceptance of greater efficiency created by CEE member programs, the SEER requirements for the lowest CEE Tier will become the new federal standard in June. To ensure the CEE Specification continues to recognize performance that significantly exceeds the minimum performance mandated by law, CEE will drop its current Tier 1, effective June 16th, the same day the new federal standard goes into effect. Tiers 2 and 3 will be renamed 1 and 2, respectively. Member programs promoting CEE Tiers should enable similar advances to be possible in the future.

CEE-AHRI HVAC Database Expansion

The Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute has merged with the Gas Appliances Manufacturing Association to become AHRI, the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute. The CEE-AHRI HVAC directory, which will now change its name to reflect this merge, came up for renewal as a CEE supplementary project this year. Supplemental projects are important ways that CEE members leverage their work in energy efficiency. No member has to pay the total cost of a large project like this, yet each one receives the full benefit.

In January, the Board had approved continuation of the Web site along with expanding the content to include information about Quality Installation. The HVAC Directory sponsors are working with AHRI to increase the functionality and use of the CEE Directory Web site to address all aspects of HVAC efficiency including finding ENERGY STAR and member program qualifying models, links to member HVAC program Web sites and the latest program design resources on Quality Installation. Ideally, CEE and AHRI will identify consistent Quality Installation Web content that will be reflected in both the CEE and AHRI equipment directories. The Board authorized the contract with the expected price tag of $87,000 based on the latest work plan and member commitments to sponsor the project. If you would like to learn more or become a sponsor of this effort, please contact John Taylor via email or phone at 617-532-0944.

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