AHAM's Director of Standards and Certification Wins Award at International Appliance Technical Conference
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Ms. Ramona Saar, AHAM's Director of Standards and Certification, recently won an Award of Excellence at the International Appliance Technology Conference (IATC) for her paper explaining ANSI/AHAM Standard AC-1, Test Method for Rating Performance of Portable Room Air Cleaners. The paper provides the history of the development of the standard, and an explanation of the rating methodology used for room air cleaners, called the clean air delivery rate (CADR). The paper also provides information on AHAM’s certification program for room air cleaners.
Since its original development in the early 1980s, the ANSI/AHAM AC-1 test method has increasingly become the credible industry standard for evaluating portable room air cleaner particle removal performance. In 1989, the FTC confirmed that ANSI/AHAM AC-1 was a reasonable basis for measuring the degrees of reduction of airborne solid particulate matter from household rooms. The test method is utilized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in its Air Cleaner Energy Star Program. Additionally, Consumers Union uses CADR to determine the air cleaner ratings and product comparison information that are published in Consumer Reports®.
ANSI/AHAM AC-1-2006 was recently reaffirmed as an American National Standard by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The changes reflected in the new updated 2006 version are a result of an AHAM-initiated independent technical expert review of the standard and a subsequent ANSI consensus panel review during 2004 and 2005.
AHAM administers a portable room air cleaner certification program based on the ANSI/AHAM AC-1 standard whereby AHAM, acting as third party using an independent testing laboratory, will verify product ratings certified by program participants. Both AHAM and non-AHAM members are eligible to participate in the program.
Ramona’s award at IATC was the result of judging and voting by peers on over 50 other papers. Links to the technical paper and slide presentation are attached, along with a white paper that provides additional detail on the scope of the standard and AHAM’s certification program.