The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on April 21 published a final rule regarding test procedures for residential refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers. It is contained in the document 79 FR 22319 that can be accessed at Regulations.gov.

The information is primarily for manufacturers in terms of compliance regarding those test procedures.

According to the DOE, “This final rule amends the test procedure that will be required for the testing of these products starting on Sept. 15, 2014. The amendments include test procedures for products with multiple compressors and an alternative method for measuring and calculating energy consumption for refrigerator-freezers and refrigerators with freezer compartments. DOE is also amending certain aspects of the test procedure in order to ensure better test accuracy and repeatability.”

At the same time DOE added, “This final rule does not address the proposal’s approach regarding the measurement of energy use associated with ice making, nor does it address the proposed treatment of built-in products, as DOE plans to address these topics in a future rule.”