Representing, and Safeguarding the Air Systems Industry

AMCA International is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, representing, and safeguarding the air systems industry. We achieve this through advocacy efforts aimed at ensuring that buildings are efficient, healthy, and safe for occupants. Our work involves participating in the development and refinement of codes, standards, and regulations, as well as providing education and information to decision-makers and practitioners. Our advocacy initiatives are focused on three key areas: energy and sustainability, occupant and building protection, and indoor air quality.


Focused Industry Initiatives

Energy Efficiency and System Performance

An energy-efficient system not only performs well, but also provides indoor comfort, good air quality, and acoustics with lower carbon emissions and a longer service life. Learn more

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation

In the past ten years, the variable-air-volume (VAV) system has undergone significant innovation and progress. By using the latest components and following best practices, a new generation of VAV systems has been developed, known as the high-performance air system (HPAS). Learn more

Occupant and Building Protection

Active safety measures are designed to suppress or extinguish fire, while passive safety measures prevent the spread of fire and smoke, which is the leading cause of death in case of a fire. Unfortunately, in many cases, passive forms of fire protection are overlooked in favor of active ones, primarily due to cost-saving measures, rather than performance. Learn more

Large Diameter Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans are popular for providing air mixing, destratification, and cooling effects in residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural settings. Learn more

Energy Efficiency and System Performance

An energy-efficient system not only performs well, but also provides indoor comfort, good air quality, and acoustics with lower carbon emissions and a longer service life. 

AMCA collaborates with government agencies, organizations, and other stakeholders to achieve practical and cost-effective voluntary and regulatory energy-efficiency measures. 

We encourage and support the industry professionals and manufacturers that update their products and practices in compliance with the latest standards, technologies, and tools.

Learn more about our global efforts. 


United States

AMCA is actively involved in developing energy codes and standards, utility rebate programs, and government regulations.

AMCA developed the Fan Energy Index.(FEI) in response to the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) rulemaking, which preferred a metric based on electrical power consumption, different from the fan efficiency grade (FEG) metric. We have indicated FEI into:

However, if federal regulations become too restrictive, it can limit the flexibility of these model codes and standards to address the specific needs of local jurisdictions. As a result, utility rebate programs for commercial and industrial fans may not be able to achieve the reasonable benchmarks necessary to drive returns on investment for higher-efficiency products. It's essential to balance these aspects to ensure effective energy conservation.


Learn more

AMCA has a growing library of educational and training resources for manufacturers, consulting engineers, contractors, commissioning providers, building owners and code officials. 


Europe

The European Commission considers eco-design as the most efficient method to enhance the energy efficiency of energy-related products, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the commission's goal of decarbonizing by 2050. With the integration of new technologies and requirements, the HVAC sector will play a vital role in achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement, with AMCA assisting in the creation of necessary legislative measures.


Middle East

In the last twenty years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become a major global center for tourism, investment, and logistics. This has led to an increase in interest for sustainable development in the region. To reduce carbon emissions by approximately 30 percent and save AED 10 billion (USD 2.72 billion) by 2030, the UAE Cabinet has adopted sustainable-building standards. The building sector will play a vital role in achieving these sustainability goals, and AMCA is advocating for the air systems industry to contribute towards these efforts.


Asia

Throughout Asia, our members are certifying fans for FEG ratings and tracking energy-efficiency regulations.

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation

In the past ten years, the variable-air-volume (VAV) system has undergone significant innovation and progress. By using the latest components and following best practices, a new generation of VAV systems has been developed, known as the high-performance air system (HPAS).

Typically, an HPAS consists of a chiller, an air handler, and terminal units or a chiller and fan coils. It offers numerous benefits, such as individual temperature zoning and high-efficiency filtration of both outside air and recirculated air. This system significantly improves energy efficiency by utilizing aggressive supply-air-temperature and chilled-water-temperature reset, demand-control ventilation, integrated economizing with heat recovery, separation of return-air and outside-air treatment in humid climates, exhaust energy recovery where appropriate, and heat-pump-chiller building-wide heat recovery. Additionally, it provides optional 100-percent electric operation.


Air Quality is Critical

Air systems play a critical role in ventilation and indoor air quality. 

AMCA International believes that HPAS are the most cost-effective way of providing comfortable and well-ventilated commercial spaces. We advise building professionals to:

    Occupant and Building Protection

    Active safety measures are designed to suppress or extinguish fire, while passive safety measures prevent the spread of fire and smoke, which is the leading cause of death in case of a fire. Unfortunately, in many cases, passive forms of fire protection are overlooked in favor of active ones, primarily due to cost-saving measures, rather than performance.

    AMCA recommends multiple safeguards for the protection of people and property in the event that one fails, other measures will still be in place to prevent the spread of fire and smoke.

    Fire-protection requirements vary according to building characteristics. Know your facility, including its use and occupancy, height and area limitations, and materials of construction.

    Understand how fire-protection systems interface with other major building systems and each other.

      Codes and Standards

      AMCA is active in the development and refinement of codes and standards affecting occupant and building protection, including:

      Large Diameter Ceiling Fans

      Ceiling fans are popular for providing air mixing, destratification, and cooling effects in residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural settings.

      The U.S. Department of Energy defines large-diameter ceiling fans (LDCF) as having a blade span greater than 7 feet (2.1 meters). It's important to note that not all LDCF are high-velocity, low-speed (HVLS) fans.


      DOE Actions

      December 27, 2020: The Federal Omnibus Bill contained the Ceiling Fan Improvement Act from Energy Act 2020 Section 1008 changing the cfm/W regulatory metric for LDCF to Ceiling Fan Energy Index (CFEI).

      May 5, 2021: A “Technical Erratum Notification” was issued by AMCA International for ANSI/AMCA Standard 230-23 with errata: Laboratory Methods of Testing Air-Circulating Fans for Rating and Certification, which is referenced in the DOE test procedure for LDCF. The erratum corrects the electrical input power measurement to standard air density.

      May 7, 2021: The DOE conducts an early assessment review for the amended Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Products; Early Assessment Review; Ceiling Fans. They are seeking data and input from industry stakeholders to evaluate the need to amend the standards, based on energy savings, feasibility, and economic justification.

      May 27, 2021: DOE published the CFEI codification of the Ceiling Fan Improvement Act in Federal Register, thereby integrating CFEI Codification Federal Register Rules and Regulations and removing cfm/W for LDCF.

      June 3, 2021: DOE extends the CFEI Codification Federal Register Rules and Regulations RFI deadline to June 28, 2021, following requests from AMCA International and the American Lighting Association, and with a letter of support from the Appliance Standards Awareness Project and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.


      Certified Ratings Program

      The AMCA Certified Ratings Program (CRP) was instituted to provide assurance that manufacturers’ product ratings are accurate and enable comparisons of like products across manufacturers. The AMCA CRP currently covers more than 4,000 product lines worldwide.

      AMCA tests per ANSI/AMCA Standard 230-23 with errata | Laboratory Methods of Testing Air Circulating Fans for Rating and Certification and certifies LDCF ratings per AMCA Publication 211-22 (Rev. 01-23):Product Rating Manual for Fan Air Performance .

      Search for AMCA Certified Product Lines and type-large diameter ceiling fan. Click on any of the resulting manufacturers to obtain links to catalogs of certified LDCF models.


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      Industry Team

      Michael Ivanovich

      Senior Director, Global Relations

      AMCA International

      Eddie Boyd

      President and CEO

      MacroAir Technologies

      Marc Brandt

      Director, Domestic Industrial Business

      Hunter Industrial

      Thomas Catania, Esq.

      Board Member

      Institute for Energy Innovation

      Aaron Gunzner

      Senior manager, advocacy

      AMCA International

      Mark Stevens

      Executive director

      AMCA International

      Christian Taber

      Principal engineer, codes, and standards

      Big Ass Fans

      Mike Wolf

      Director, regulatory business development

      Greenheck Fan Corp.


      gray-large-diameter-ceiling-fan

      AMCA insite Webinar- U.S. Codes, Standards, & Regulations for Large Diameter Ceiling Fans.


      The Impact of LDCF on COVID-19 Exposure in Warehouses

      AMCA International, in collaboration with Concordia University and a team of engineers and scientists, have published the results of a year-long study that investigates the impact of LDCF on COVID-19 exposures in warehouses in the United States.

      The findings are applicable to large open indoor spaces with low occupancy, in addition to warehouses. They are based on over 220 parametric computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. These simulations varied worker and packing-line locations, fan speed (ranging from 20% to 100%), and with and without racking. The fans used in the project are certified by AMCA International for air performance.

      AMCA inmotion AMCA COVID-19 Guidance for Large-Diameter Ceiling Fans

      Concordia University AMCA Covid-19 Guidance for Large-Diameter Ceiling Fans

      AMCA Covid Guidance for UNDUCTED Fans- Modeling Ceiling Fans


      Project Contributors

      AMCA wishes to thank Liangzhu (Leon) Wang, PhD, P.Eng., and his team at Concordia University for the modeling and the science and industry teams for their contributions to the study design and the review of the results and guidance.

      To promote integrity in the design and execution of the research and ensure the conclusions drawn from the study are valid and useful, AMCA International assembled industry and science teams. Consisting of representatives of AMCA International member companies and members of the AMCA International staff, the industry team provided expertise in the application and performance of products, while the science team, made up of authorities on infectious diseases, indoor-air quality, fans, and computer modeling, advised on the project setup and reviewed the intermediate and final results. The table below identifies the rosters of the science and industry teams.


      AMCA Member Companies

      Thank you to the following AMCA member companies for co-funding this study:

      Big Ass Fans

      Greenheck Fan Corportation

      Hunter Industrial

      MacroAir Technologies


      Science Team

      Liangzhu Wang, PhD

      Associate professor, Department of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering

      Concordia University

      William P. Bahnfleth, PhD, PE, FASHRAE

      Professor, architectural engineering,

      Chair, ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force

      The Pennsylvania State University

      Edward. Nardell, PhD

      Professor, departments of Environmental Health and Immunology and Infectious Diseases

      Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

      Jovan Pantelic, PhD

      Research scientist, building science

      Well Living Lab Inc.

      Paul Raftery, PhD

      Professional researcher

      Center for the Built Environment University of California, Berkeley

      Geoffrey Sheard, PhD

      President

      AGS Consulting

      Pawel Wargocki, PhD

      Associate Professor, departments of Civil Engineering and Indoor Environment

      Chair, ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force Science Applications Committee

      Technical University of Denmark


      Air Movement and Control Association International, Inc.