APPLIANCE EFFICIENCY STANDARDS

The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987 established minimum efficiency standards for major home appliances, including furnaces, central and room air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, water heaters, dishwashers, and heat pumps. Most of the standards took effect in 1990. The standards for clothes washers, dishwashers, and ranges took effect in 1988, because they required only minor changes in product design, such as eliminating pilot lights and requiring cold water rinse options. The standards for central air conditioners and furnaces took effect in 1992, because it took longer to redesign these products. Appliance efficiency standards for refrigerators took effect in 1993.

California Code of Regulations, Title 20, Chapter 2, Subchapter 4: Energy Conservation, Article 4: Appliance Efficiency Standards. Appliance Efficiency Standards regulate the minimum performance requirements for appliances sold in California and apply to refrigerators, freezers, room air conditioners, central air conditioners, gas space heaters, water heaters, plumbing fittings, fluorescent lamp ballasts and luminaires, and ignition devices for gas cooking appliances and gas pool heaters. New National Appliance Standards are in place for some of these appliances and will become effective for others at a future date.