Reminder: the upcoming Building Energy Codes and Standards Committee (BECS) Meeting will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, May 10-11, 2023, at the Francis Marion Hotel, 387 King Street in Charleston, SC(877) 756-2121 or (843) 722-0600. For meeting registration click here: BECS Committee Meeting.    

AGA Submits Comments on the DOE Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNOPR) Pertaining to Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Cooking Products.

Recall that in the February 3rd BECS Committee Update on End Use Codes and Standards, we reported on the DOE Federal Register supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNOPR) pertaining to energy conservation standards for consumer conventional cooking products including gas and electric  cooktops and ovens. On Monday, AGA submitted timely comments (attached ) to the SNOPR providing justification for our strong opposition for the DOE proposal based on the DOE’s failure to provide justification that would essentially eliminate commercial type gas cook tops for residential gas applications.  In our comments, we outlined substantial concerns with the economic and technical analysis DOE presented in support of the proposal as well as legal problems with the DOE proposal. AGA has issued a Press Release  outlining concerns with the DOE proposal. Thanks to BECS Committee members that provided feedback on the DOE proposal. We will provide updates on the proposal when DOE issues its responses to the hundreds of public comments on the proposal.

DOE Publishes Federal Register Notification of Petition for Rulemaking Pertaining to Test Procedures for Conventional Cooking Products.

In a related item to the above article, on Wednesday, DOE published a Federal Register notification of petition for rulemaking pertaining to test procedures for conventional cooking products. On January 12, 2023, DOE received a petition from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) to consider amendments to the conventional cooking products test procedure to allow a calculation in place of certain testing provisions for conventional cooking tops, clarify the definition of the term specialty cooking zone, clarify the equipment used to measure electric coil heating element diameter, and stay the effectiveness of any mandatory use of the test procedure. DOE is requesting comment on the petition, as well as any data or information that could be used in DOE’s determination whether to grant the petition. DOE will accept comments, data, and information regarding this NOPR until May 19, 2023.Interested persons may submit comments identified by docket number EERE–2023–BT–TP–0006, by email ([email protected]), Federal eRulemaking portal (http://www.regulations.gov).