Energy Conservation Program: Test Procedures for Portable Air Conditioners

On February 25, 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), in which it proposed to establish test procedures for portable air conditioners (ACs) to determine capacities and energy efficiency metrics for portable ACs. On November 27, 2015, DOE published a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNOPR) to revise the proposal by modifying the cooling and heating mode test requirements, introducing the seasonally adjusted cooling capacity (SACC) and a revised combined energy efficiency ratio (CEER), and clarifying several aspects of test setup. The proposed test procedure serves as the basis for this action. DOE is issuing a final rule to establish a new test procedure for portable ACs in a new appendix. The new test procedure in appendix CC will be used to determine the SACC and CEER for portable ACs that are subject to the adopted test procedure. The test procedure is based on industry standards, with several modifications to ensure the test procedure is representative of typical use and to improve accuracy and repeatability while minimizing test burden.