WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it has released a schedule for setting new appliance efficiency standards. The five-year plan outlines how DOE will work to address the appliance standards rulemaking backlog and meet all of the statutory requirements established in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005).

A number of statutes require DOE to set appliance efficiency standards at levels that achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that is technologically feasible and economically justified. In addition to products required under EPACT 2005, the plan provides for the issuance of a standard for each of the 18 products currently in the backlog, including residential furnaces and boilers; residential water heaters; direct heating equipment; pool heaters; electric motors; packaged terminal air conditioners and heat pumps; and commercial refrigeration equipment.

DOE said it is working to speed up the process of developing and issuing appliance standards rulemakings through process improvements such as bundling multiple products into single rulemakings, shortening the time to complete successive rulemakings, and other techniques.