New regulatory requirements for air conditioners and heat pumps will be introduced from April 1, 2014.
It covers air conditioners and heat pumps manufactured locally or imported into Australia under the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps) Determination 2013.
The Determination does not affect the registration of any model registered under the GEMS Determination 2012.
The air conditioners and heat pumps covered by the Determination are appliances that are of the vapour compression type with a rated total cooling capacity of 65 kilowatts or less.
However, the Determination does not cover: close control air conditioners and liquid-chilling packages; evaporative coolers or any other cooling systems that are not of the vapour compression type; ground-water-sourced heat pumps or ground-loop-sourced heat pumps; or unbalanced air conditioners and spot coolers.
This is in addition to: air conditioners powered by mains electricity specifically designed and sold only for installation in end-use mobile applications of caravans, mobile homes, camper vans, boats and rail cars; air conditioners powered by mains electricity specifically designed and sold only for installation in specialised high temperature industrial applications, such as crane cabins used over blast furnaces; or products that solely deliver conditioned outdoor air to an indoor conditioned space.
All air conditioners and heat pumps covered by the Determination must be registered with the Australian GEMS Regulator.
There are no GEMS labelling requirements for water cooled condensers, water-to-air heat pumps, brine-to-air heat pumps and multi-split systems.
The Determination is available on the Energy Rating website: www.energyrating.gov.au/legislation-for-e3-under-gems/