Update From North America: U.S. and Canadian Lighting Regulations and U.S. Fluorescent Ballast Standards
Valerie Whela
Energy Efficiency Branch, Natural Resources Canada
Barbara A. Atkinson, Andrea Denver, Diane Fisher, Sajid Hakim, Jiang Lin, James E. McMahon, Isaac Turiel
Technology and Market Assessment Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S.
Terrence L. Logee
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Codes and Standards, U.S.
Abstract
In the first section of the paper, we give a brief review of major Canadian and U.S. lighting regulatory activities since 1995. In Canada, the U.S. lamp regulations were adopted and progress was made on the national energy code. Fluorescent ballasts were already regulated. In the U.S., the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) inspired a voluntary fluorescent luminaire program, lamp test procedures, and adoption by the states of the ASHRAE/IES1) 90.1-89 building code. We discuss the harmonization efforts between the two countries on lighting regulations.
Fluorescent lamp ballasts returned to the regulatory spotlight in the United States beginning in 1994 and are a high priority product for the Department of Energy (DoE). The second section of the paper covers a history of the existing and proposed standards and describes the current process for developing standards including changes due to 1996 legislation. This section presents an overview of the ballast analysis methods, and results of the engineering/economic (life cycle cost) analysis, the analysis of variability of parameters, and the national energy forecasts of electricity consumption for lighting.
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