New Energy Efficiency Rules Announced by DOE

The Biden administration’s Department of Energy finalized efficiency standards on a number of product types that will eventually affect commercial real estate, although not for a few years. They will apply to new products and do not require wholesale retrofitting.

The most closely covered one is the lightbulb standard, which is the final product of a long gestation. In 2007, the Energy Independence and Security Act, signed by President George W. Bush, strengthened an executive order that sought greater energy efficiency. The law, passed by Congress, required, among other things, new standards for lightbulbs. They effectively would have made non-LED lighting types, like traditional incandescent and halogen, obsolete.

There were calls for exceptions by the lighting industry. The Obama administration decided in 2017 to not exempt some popular types of bulbs. When Donald Trump was elected and took office, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association sued the DOE over the standards, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The Trump administration settled the suit and agreed to revisit the issue. Under the Biden administration, when the DOE reconsidered the standards, the NEMA requested more time to implement the plan.

Time’s now up. The new rule increases the mandatory efficiency level of bulbs from 45 lumens (a measure of lighting brightness) per watt to more than 120 lumens for common lightbulbs. Manufacturers and importers must comply by July 25, 2028. The DOE has claimed that the average household could save more than $200 a year by using LED lightbulbs, including savings from less electrical usage and longer times between replacements. Many available fluorescent bulbs don’t meet the new standard, but there are also LED replacements.

The new commercial equipment efficiency standards, receiving less attention than the ones for lightbulbs, affect commercial unitary air conditioners and heat pumps, circulator pumps, dishwashers, and miscellaneous refrigeration products (wine coolers being an example), according to the DOE. Over 30 years, the unitary A/Cs and heat pumps are expected to offer a 10% energy use savings. Circulator pumps over the same 30-year period are supposed to save a third of energy use compared to products currently on the market. Dishwashers, 3%, and miscellaneous refrigeration products, 26%.

Required compliance begins on January 1, 2029, for commercial unitary air conditioners and heat pumps, and on January 1, 2028, for circulator pumps. Dishwasher requirements start at the opening of 2027. And for miscellaneous refrigeration products, compliance is required beginning January 31, 2029.