The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) has a variety of certification programs that test and certify that HVACR equipment and components have been independently tested to ensure manufacturers’ performance claims are accurate. In 2009, AHRI unveiled a new certification mark that is applied to all its programs. The AHRI Certified™ mark (below) replaces the “ARI Performance Certified,” “GAMA Efficiency Rating Certified” and “I=B=R” marks, and will be applied by members in phases. The former “ARI Performance Certified” mark will be the first to be replaced with 100% compliance achieved by January 1, 2011.

Certified suppliers are listed in the AHRI online directory where products can be compared equally based on certified performance ratings. This online, real-time database allows you to search by product lines, certified ratings or manufacturer. The certification mark can also be used in a company’s marketing efforts (print ads, website, press releases, etc.) to gain a competitive advantage.

AHRI’s 300+ member companies account for more than 90 percent of the residential and commercial air conditioning, space heating, water heating, and commercial refrigeration equipment manufactured and sold in North America. In addition to benefitting manufacturers, AHRI Certification assures end users and specifiers that the information they receive from suppliers is accurate, can be appropriately compared with other manufacturers and they are indeed getting what they specify and pay for. Emerson is a big supporter of AHRI and deeply involved in the organization.

An AHRI AC drives group was formed in 2008 and has been working on performance measures for drives. The proposed measures include efficiency of the drive system (motor and drive), harmonics generated by a drive at the input of the drive and peak voltages generated by a drive that will be seen by the motor connected to it. Preliminary testing of these measures is currently occurring and then an agreement on the test methods should be agreed upon by the participating manufacturers. The current members include representatives from ABB, Danfoss, Emerson, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, McQuay, Schneider Electric (Square D) and Trane.

We anticipate that AHRI certification will become a requirement of most drives specified and used in the HVACR industry and we are proud to be on the front end of this certification program.

For more information on Liebert technologies and services from Emerson Network Power, visit www.emersonnetworkpower.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.