EPCA is Overdue
for an Update

In the last 50 years, we invented the internet, mapped the human genome, and taught a robot to do a backflip. We cheered the last moon landing in ’72 and did it again when astronauts circled the far side of the moon for the first time in ’26.

But the federal policy that sets appliance efficiency standards for heating, cooling, and water heating equipment? It hasn’t changed much since 1975.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), the federal appliance efficiency standards program, was built for a different era. Today, this 50-year-old law has locked in outdated assumptions that can actually drive up the price of essential home equipment. That’s why the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI)—the trade association representing 300+ manufacturers of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, commercial refrigeration (HVACR), and water heating equipment—is asking Congress to modernize EPCA.

Updating EPCA isn’t just about policy; it’s about protecting American HVACR and water heating manufacturers and consumers. Let’s give them the certainty and flexibility they need to invest in U.S. facilities and create high-quality jobs.

It’s time to act on EPCA.

The AHRI Cool Zone
Ice Cream Trucks

On May 19, dozens of AHRI members and staff met with congressional offices in both the U.S. House and the Senate to discuss modernization of the EPCA, workforce development initiatives, and affordability.

To bring additional attention and awareness to the importance of EPCA reform, AHRI hosted two branded ice cream trucks on Capitol Hill. The ’70s throwback design of the trucks match the year EPCA was established. Throughout the day, 600+ congressional staffers stopped by to pick up ice cream and learn more about AHRI’s policy priorities on EPCA reform.

Travel back to 1975 with us and listen to the classics on our playlist.
Thankfully, you don’t need your vinyl and a record player for these tunes.

Why EPCA Modernization Matters

The HVACR and water heating industry employs more than 750,000 Americans and generates $211 billion in economic activity every year. It’s one of the most innovative, technologically advanced industries in the country, but it is regulated by a 50-year-old law, which locks in outdated assumptions on energy efficiency. This can unintentionally raise upfront prices, limit consumer choice, and delay the adoption of technologies that could save people money over time. Modernizing EPCA would encourage competition, lower real-world prices, and help ensure customers can afford innovative products.  

Modernizing EPCA also helps preserve a clear, national framework, avoiding a confusing and costly patchwork of state-by-state rules. That kind of fragmentation can increase costs, complicate compliance, and slow progress, which is why the HVACR and water heating industry supported EPCA from the start. A strong, updated federal standard for covered products provides certainty for manufacturers, consistency for consumers, and faster nationwide deployment of efficient technologies.

AHRI Policy Priorities

Modernizing EPCA for Today’s Market

Congress can ensure that EPCA continues to serve American manufacturers and consumers by pursuing modernization measures that give manufacturers both the certainty and flexibility needed to invest in U.S. facilities, accelerate innovation, and support high-quality American manufacturing jobs.

Policy Recommendations

AHRI applauds the legislative effort to modernize the EPCA to better align with modern market realities while improving the Act’s regulatory stipulations that emphasize the importance of energy efficiency, economic feasibility, and consumer affordability. 

Consistent with that approach, AHRI offers these policy recommendations for EPCA modernization:

  • Strengthen federal preemption1 to ensure a unified appliance energy policy: AHRI calls for a single national energy policy that ensures safe, reliable, and affordable access to essential heating and cooling products, avoiding regulatory fragmentation that could harm innovation and consumers.

  • Ensure regulatory predictability: AHRI recommends that Congress:
    • Maintain anti-backsliding provisions, which provide business certainty to manufacturers and their customers;
    • Ensure that long-term capital investments are not undermined or stranded;
    • Set a new minimum 10-year “lookback” period for evaluating standards;
    • Prohibit the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from regulating component parts separately to avoid double regulation and increased costs; and
    • Ensure DOE follows its own “Process Rule.”
  • Develop realistic and transparent standards: AHRI recommends clarifying that efficiency standards must be economically justified and technologically feasible and must be based on sound analysis taking into consideration product characteristics and attributes that are important to consumers, while also ensuring that consumers realize the value of their investment in new innovative products.
  • Modernize compliance and labeling: AHRI recommends that compliance dates be based on the date of manufacture to avoid stranded inventory, and that manufacturers are empowered to use electronic labeling, such as QR codes, to modernize consumer information and reduce complexity.

1 Amend § 6297 to add a new subsection:
(h) Applicability. This section shall apply to all state and local governments, including municipalities exercising home-rule authority, special districts, commissions, and agencies created by or under state law, and shall preempt any code, regulation, whether legislative or administrative in origin, that prohibits, directly or indirectly, the installation or use of a covered product or requires the removal or substitution of such product based on its fuel source or on the emission of any air pollutant as defined in 42 U.S.C. § 7602(g).

More About AHRI

AHRI represents the manufacturers of more than 90% of the HVACR and water heating equipment sold in the U.S. An internationally recognized advocate for the industry, AHRI develops standards for and certifies the performance of many of these products. AHRI members manufacture quality, efficient, and innovative residential and commercial air conditioning, space heating, water heating, and commercial refrigeration equipment and components sold in North America and around the world.

Everyone wants efficient HVACR and water heating equipment.
The time is now to act on EPCA and help ensure its availability and affordability for the next 50 years.

Contact information

For questions about AHRI’s policy positions or legislative efforts, contact:
Samantha Slater, AHRI Senior Vice President of Government Affairs sslater@ahrinet.org

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