TORONTO - The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) began a new project in the first quarter of 2008 to develop a performance/efficiency standard addressing fan/motor combinations. A CSA Technical Subcommittee is currently being formed and the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI) will be participating in this initiative as well.

The scope of this standard will focus on fan/motor combinations used in forced air furnaces (typically called furnace blowers), furnace blower assemblies, or furnace air handlers. The electrical energy use of furnace air handlers is not included in furnace AFUE ratings, air conditioner SEER performance ratings (default power consumptions are used), or HRV performance ratings. At this time, the former Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association (now part of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute) publishes two different ratings of annual electrical energy consumption for furnaces based on measurements that are taken during AFUE testing. The two ratings represent the electrical power for power burners in W (PE) and the rated overall electrical energy consumption of the furnace in kWh (Eae).

These ratings do not disaggregate air handler consumption from other components and they are based on test conditions that may not be representative of typical installations (no filters, low static pressures, and unreported supply voltage to the air handler component).

These ratings also do not provide information on the electricity used by the air handler when it is operating in standby, cooling, or circulation mode, and the power factor is not reported.

For more information, visit www.csa.ca.

Publication date: 02/04/2008