“This is a landmark development for AMCA, its members, and the fan industry as a whole,” said Michael Ivanovich, senior director, global affairs, AMCA. “FEI will help system designers right-size fans, and it’s easier to apply and enforce than FEG. Because fan performance is highly sensitive to operating conditions, FEI will reduce wasted energy and unnecessary carbon emissions and increase fan service life.”

Unlike FEG, FEI considers motors and drives, not just fans, which makes FEI consistent with new efficiency metrics for pumps and air compressors. FEI is the ratio of the electrical input power of a reference fan to the electrical input power of an actual fan at the same duty point (airflow, pressure, and air density). The higher the FEI rating, the more efficient a fan will be for a given duty point. This allows engineers to perform return on investment analyses for different fan types, sizes, and motor/drive combinations when designing systems.

“With the adoption of FEI into ASHRAE/IES 90.1, we are optimistic about proposals pending for the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), which will have final code-action hearings in October,” said Aaron Gunzner, advocacy manager, AMCA. “AMCA will be contacting states that have codes or are considering efficiency provisions using FEG and encouraging them to replace FEG language with the ASHRAE or IECC language. This will harmonize fan-efficiency metrics nationwide and ease the application and compliance burdens posed by FEG.”

FEI is a new metric, and the industry will have to overcome a learning curve when applying it, said Tim Mathson, principal engineer, AMCA, and primary developer of FEI. “With this in mind, AMCA collaborated with Productive Energy Solutions to develop professional-development-hour-eligible introductory and engineering-level online courses on FEI.”

For more information or to view a webinar titled, “Fan Energy Index (FEI) — Changing Our Industry,” visit www.amca.org.