Heating, cooling and beyond
The US Department of Energy has mandated that effective January 1, 2023 all new air conditioners & heat pumps to be manufactured meet the following minimum standards: 14 SEER for ACs in the northern states (currently 13); 15 SEER in the south (currently 14); and for heat pumps the new national minimum efficiency will increase from 14 to 15 SEER. The DOE has also mandated that manufacturers comply with a new testing procedure for developing efficiency ratings. According to a Tempstar press release "compared to today's test procedure, the external static pressure used when testing will be increased by up to 5X to better reflect field conditions." AC minimum efficiency was raised to 13 SEER in 2006 from 10.
