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Standards & Guidelines

100+ performance rating standards and guidelines for the HVACR and water heating industry.

AHRI maintains a continuously evolving portfolio of more than 100 performance rating standards, stand-alone appendices, and guidelines for the HVACR and water heating industry. These deliverables promote consistency in manufacturer specifications, which increases consumer confidence, and provides a means for manufacturers, third-party laboratories, regulators, and certification bodies to evaluate products objectively and consistently.

AHRI Standards Overview

AHRI standards are developed under a process composed of multiple levels of development, review, and approval by industry experts and other stakeholders. The AHRI standards process is accredited by both the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Standards Council of Canada (SCC), which means that AHRI standards can be further approved as either American National Standards (ANS) or National Standards of Canada (NSC), or both.

The stages of development and approval include the following: 

  1. A proposal to start a new activity coming from any source.
  2. Initiation of a standards activity by a Standards Technical Committee (STC).
  3. Development of a draft by the STC or a Standards Work Group (SWG). 
  4. Public review of the draft, then revision by the STC to address comments received and approval by the STC. Public review is optional for AHRI-only deliverables.
  5. Review and approval of the draft by the Standards Committee (StdC). The document may now be published as an AHRI-only deliverable. 
  6. (Optional for standards) Review and approval by a Consensus Body and submission by AHRI staff to ANSI or SCC, or both, for publication of the AHRI standard as either an ANS or NSC, or both.

The approved AHRI Policy & Procedures for the Development of Standards document is found here.

Appeals

Appeals related to any decisions made, or actions taken or not taken, are handled in accordance with the appeals process found in Section 7.1 of the AHRI Policy & Procedures document. 

Patent Policy

The AHRI Patent Policy is found in Appendix A of the AHRI Policy & Procedures document. 

AHRI, the Air Conditioning, Heating, & Refrigeration Institute, develops performance-based standards for equipment designed and manufactured by HVACR industry participants. These standards, which are used throughout the world, stimulate innovation and are the stepping stones to improving product performance. Through the use of industry standards and voluntary participation in the AHRI certification program, manufacturers can improve the quality of their products, and consumers can be assured manufacturers' performance claims are accurate and rated uniformly, enabling fair comparisons. AHRI provides free access to its standards and guidelines, as well as information about how they are developed and advanced globally. 

The AHRI StdC, a standing committee of the AHRI Board of Directors, has oversight of the AHRI standards activity. 

Standards Resources

For additional information regarding AHRI standards activities, contact Jerry Yeh, Supervising Manager of Standards & Quality, at [email protected].

Development of AHRI Standards

AHRI standards are developed under a process composed of multiple levels of development, review, and approval by industry experts and stakeholders. The AHRI standards process is accredited by both ANSI and SCC, which means that AHRI standards can be approved as either an ANS or an NSC, or both. For information related to ANSI and SCC, click here. 

Interpretations

Interpretations of published AHRI deliverables can be requested in accordance with the process defined in Section 8.2 of the AHRI Policy & Procedures document. Requests for interpretation must be submitted to [email protected]; these requests will be acknowledged within ten business days. Interpretations are developed and approved by the STC responsible for maintenance of the deliverable and, upon approval, will be published with the associated document on the Published AHRI Standards and Guidelines page, here.

Safety Standards

AHRI does not set safety standards and does not certify or guarantee the safety of any products, components or systems designed, tested, rated, installed or operated in accordance with AHRI deliverables. AHRI strongly recommends that products be designed, constructed, assembled, installed and operated in accordance with nationally recognized safety standards and code requirements appropriate for products covered by AHRI deliverables. AHRI uses its best efforts to develop standards and guidelines that include state-of-the-art and accepted industry practices. AHRI does not certify or guarantee that any tests conducted under its standards or guidelines will be non-hazardous or free from risk.

Relationship to AHRI Certification Program

AHRI has established and continuously maintains certification programs to promote the use of and compliance with AHRI and other nationally or internationally recognized standards, in support of its responsibility for leadership in the air-conditioning, heating, water heating, and refrigeration industry. The AHRI certification programs are accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 and are open to all manufacturers on an equal basis. More information about the AHRI certification program can be found here.

Published AHRI Standards and Guidelines

Search all published standards and guidelines by number and title.

Search AHRI Deliverables

More About AHRI Standards

Questions related to the AHRI standards process or activities, or any appeals or complaints regarding any aspect of the standards activity, should be submitted to [email protected].

Standard
How to Participate

Input in AHRI standards activities is welcome from stakeholders and affected or interested parties.

Talk to the Standards Team

Reach out to our team members with your questions.

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