NBN Online for the week of August 8, 2005

New Standard Nears for Air Conditioners, Heat Pumps

The Department of Energy (DOE) is requiring new residential air conditioners and heat pumps manufactured after Jan. 23, 2006 to operate at a 13 SEER (seasonal energy efficiency rating). The new standard is 30% more stringent than the current requirement for an energy efficiency rating of 10, which has been in effect since 1992.

The department made its decision last year, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected efforts of the Bush Administration to lower the new standard to a SEER 12.

With the support of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI), NAHB challenged the SEER 13 standard when it was first proposed by DOE at the start of 2001.

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There have been four winners already — the most recent winner is Robert Poole, of Poole's Plumbing, Inc. in Raleigh, N.C. — and you could be next.

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Staten Island Downzoning Bid Violates Fair Housing Act

Home builders in Staten Island, N.Y. have made it clear that recent downzoning proposals there may violate the Fair Housing Act. As a result, local officials have begun to reconsider the use of downzoning as a means of maintaining exclusive communities and have taken the recent downzoning proposals off the calendar.