California Battery Charger Specs Can Influence Federal Standard, Says NRDC

By setting its own battery charger energy standard in advance of a proposed standard by the U.S. Department of Energy, California could influence the federal standard, the Natural Resources Defense Council said. The standard proposed by the California Energy Commission (CEC) would take effect 18 months earlier than the DOE’s proposed federal standard, so the state could ensure that the DOE’s specification is “sufficiently stringent and capture the benefits from the California standard,” NRDC said in comments. But Sony questioned the need for the state to pursue a battery charger standard when the DOE already has started a rulemaking.

The CEC should set efficiency requirements in the charge, maintenance and no battery usage modes of battery charger systems, the NRDC said. The group’s analysis said battery chargers spend a “significant portion of their energy in all three main operating modes,” it said. An efficiency verification mark requirement for battery charger systems could be “instrumental in facilitating the implementation of a standard and reducing its cost to industry,” NRDC said.

The data used to support energy “estimates” in the report by Ecos Consulting, which the commission is using as a basis for its proposed standard, is “outdated,” said Sony. “The data is not only an estimate, it is inflated and the numbers reported give the reader the false impression that the energy being saved is justified and that a state standard will help California meet the long term energy goals,” the company said. Also, the commission’s proposed performance standard for small battery chargers is “extremely restrictive,” it said. The proposed California standard should separate consumer and non-consumer products, Sony said, because consumer products have shorter design and life cycles.

Energy-efficiency standards may not be appropriate for products used in public safety and “mission critical” applications and should be excluded from the proposed regulations, Motorola said. Radio communications products sold to mission critical operations typically use nickel-based batteries, which are “inherently less energy-efficient than lithium-based batteries,” but have “significant and important benefits in other areas” like wider temperature range of operations and greater life cycle, the company said. Besides “ignoring the need for varying battery chemistries,” the CEC’s proposed energy limits “do not appear to account for special functions that many advanced chargers for mission critical roles require,” Motorola said. The California State Sheriffs’ Association, the state Police Chiefs Association and the state Narcotic Officers’ Association said in joint comments that the proposed regulations would “jeopardize the use of many of the most reliable battery chemistries available and those that are being utilized by many local and state public safety personnel.”