(March 17, 2004)
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The American
Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
(ACEEE) announced on this day that it
welcomed the acceptance by the
air-conditioning industry of SEER 13 as
the federal efficiency standard for
residential central air conditioners, to
be effective in January 2006. The
current federal standard was SEER 10,
which took effect in 1992. (SEER stands
for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio.)
The SEER 13 standard was first
promulgated in 2001 near the end of the
Clinton administration, reduced to SEER
12 in 2002 by the Bush Administration,
and restored to SEER 13 in January 2004
by the 2nd Circuit of the U.S. Court of
Appeals. Today Air Conditioning and
Refrigeration Institute (ARI – the
industry trade association) announced it
was withdrawing its appeal of the SEER
13 standard (filed in 2001 in the 4th
Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals),
and thus the SEER 13 standard is now
final.
Under the new standard, energy use by
new air conditioners will be reduced by
23% relative to the current standard.
According to ACEEE analysis, this will
reduce the peak demand for electric
power by 41,500 Megawatts by 2020
(equivalent to 138 typical new power
plants of 300 MW each) and save
consumers approximately $5 billion over
the 2006-2030 period. It will also
reduce air pollutant and greenhouse gas
emissions, saving 7.2 million metric
tons of carbon in 2020, which is
equivalent to taking more than 3 million
vehicles off the road.
"This has been a long, drawn-out
process that has created a lot of work
and uncertainty for all sides. We are
glad to finally have this process behind
us and to be able to move on to new
opportunities," stated ACEEE Executive
Director Steven Nadel. "We have a long
history of negotiating compromise
efficiency standards with industry
groups and hope that the future will see
more negotiation and less
confrontation," he continued.
"In addition to standards, there are
many other areas of mutual interest
shared by the industry and public
interest advocates—areas in which we
want to work with the air conditioning
industry to capture additional energy
savings," said Harvey Sachs, Director of
ACEEE's Buildings Program. "These
include improving the test methods to
better reflect field performance and
ease the testing burden, helping
contractors improve typical sizing,
installation, and maintenance practices,
and encouraging consumers to purchase
value-added products whose efficiency
exceeds federal standards," he added.
