While the industry waits to hear if an appeals court officially accepts a lawsuit settlement on the issue, the ACCA is letting members they won’t be risking fines if they sell lower efficiency furnaces May 1.

The Air Conditioning Contractors of America’s latest ComforTool flier, "What Happened to the High-Efficiency Furnace Rules?" explains why it’s OK to sell furnaces with annual fuel utilization efficiency ratings below 90 percent nationwide even though regulations that take effect in eight days say otherwise.

"Until April 5. when the Department of Energy released a statement saying they would not enforce the standards, contractors had to continue to work under the assumption that the furnace rules were going to go into effect in May," said Paul T. Stalknecht, ACCA president and CEO. "We have heard from many contractors that their customers are feeling deceived, because they were told that to save money they would need to replace their unit before May 1 and now this is not true. We created this new ComforTool to help our members explain to their customers what happened, that they were not lied to, and that as professional contractors they are trying to help their customers make the best decisions to meet their comfort needs."

The flier is available to members at this website.