The following text has been provided courtesy of Standards Australia.

This Standard was prepared by the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Committee EL-015, Quality and Performance of Household Electrical Appliances, to include AS/NZS 3823.2:2011.

The AS/NZS 3823 series comprises five Parts, as follows:

Standard	Description
AS/NZS 3823	Performance of electrical appliances – Air Conditioners and heat pumps
3823.1.1 Part 1.1	Test methods – Non-ducted air conditioners and heat pumps – Testing and rating for performance
3823.1.2 Part 1.2	Test methods – Ducted air conditioners and air-to-air heat pumps – Testing and rating for performance
3823.1.3 Part 1.3	Water-source heat pumps – Water-to-air and brine-to-air heat pumps – Testing and rating for performance
3823.2 Part 2	Energy labelling and minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) requirements (this Standard)
3823.3 Part 3	Calculation of performance for minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) requirements

The overall objective of the AS/NZS 3823 series of Standards is to promote high levels of performance and energy efficiency in air conditioners and heat pumps. The Parts of the AS/NZS 3823 series are summarized as follows:

1. Part 1.1 includes performance test procedures for rating non-ducted air conditioners and heat pumps, to be used in conjunction with Part 2.
2. Part 1.2 includes performance test procedures for rating ducted air conditioners and heat pumps, to be used in conjunction with Part 2.
3. Part 1.3 includes performance test procedures for rating water-to-air heat pumps and air conditioners with water cooled condensers, to be used in conjunction with Part 2.
4. Part 2 specifies minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) requirements and includes algorithms for the calculation of the energy efficiency star rating, performance requirements, details of energy labels and requirements for valid applications for registration.
5. Part 3 specifies procedures for calculating the performance (simulation) of air conditioners of the vapour compression type up to a rated total cooling capacity of 65 kW, for minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) requirements, in lieu of physical tests.

This Standard is published with the approval of the combined state and territory regulatory authorities and is structured to be suitable for reference in legislation calling up minimum energy performance standards and also for reference in energy labelling regulatory legislation.

Similar to the previous revisions of this Standard it is possible to use either physical tests or simulated performance tests (described in AS/NZS 3823.3) to demonstrate compliance with the minimum energy performance standard requirements for three-phase and some single-phase units (units that do not carry an energy label). Only physical tests in a calorimeter can be used to demonstrate compliance for products that carry an energy label. Suppliers of three-phase, single-phase ducted and single-phase commercial units may choose to fix energy labels to those products. In such cases, the products must be registered for energy labelling and all of the usual requirements for energy labelling will apply (including the requirement for a physical test in a calorimeter). The status of energy labelling and minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) Australian regulatory programs and their date of implementation for the various air conditioning equipment configurations are provided in Appendix E of the Standard.

The main features in this edition of the Standard are as follows:

1. Introduction of more stringent cooling MEPS levels for all products except for ducted systems in the 10 to <19kW where a MEPS Level of AEER will be allowed until 1 April 2012 .
2. Use of simulation will be permitted for products less than 30 kW where less than 10 per year are sold and the company provides sales data for all models they sell in the category.

In Australia, all appliances within the scope of this Standard, manufactured or imported for sale in Australia on or after 1 October 2011, are required to be registered to this Standard. At this time, all registrations to previous editions of this Standard will be grandfathered.

In New Zealand, this Standard is anticipated to be incorporated by reference into New Zealand law to align with the Australian regulatory processes. Once incorporated all items that are within the scope of this Standard, that are manufactured in, or imported into New Zealand may not be sold to a consumer unless they comply with this Standard. At this time, all registrations to previous editions of this Standard will be grandfathered.

Registrations that do not comply with the relevant requirements of this Standard for 2011 will be grandfathered from 1 October 2011.

Section 4 of this Standard sets out the transition provisions for energy labelling and MEPS under this Standard.

Administrative arrangements during the transition period may vary so registration holders should contact their regulator to obtain detailed requirements with respect to registration requirements (see also Section 4 and Appendix F of this Standard). An overview of the regulatory requirements in New Zealand for energy labelling and MEPS is included in Appendix F of the Standard.

Check testing, where applicable, will be undertaken to the version of the test Standard or the appropriate MEPS levels which have been used to support the registration for that model. A summary of the Administrative Guidelines has been included in Appendix F for the information of users of this Standard.

A copy of the standard can be purchased from SAI Global or Standards New Zealand.