A Q&A with Michael Ivanovich, Senior Director of Advocacy and Education with the Air Movement and Control Association International Inc. shares his expertise on fan efficiency and the usefulness of the Fan Energy Index.

What is your experience with the fan industry and fan efficiency?

I have worked for AMCA International for almost 15 years. Most of my work has been involved with fan efficiency codes, standards, and regulations. I’ve recently started mentoring a new team for Advocacy and Education, and helping to launch AMCA’s formalized educational programs. Since 2013, I’ve helped AMCA embed fan-efficiency metrics and provisions into model and state energy codes, including ASHRAE 90.1 and the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) editions.

How does FEI influence fan selection decisions?

The Fan Energy Index (FEI) was developed as a regulatory metric meant to improve commercial and industrial  fan selections. Typically, energy regulations establish a minimum threshold based on peak efficiency, but that doesn’t work for fans—a fan that isn’t efficient for one application may be highly efficient for another. It depends on the duty point or the engineer’s design point of operation, such as the hottest day of the year or in applications where the fan operates 90% of the time.

Long story short, FEI is a regulatory metric for efficiency and a tool to help engineers and designers select a fan for lowest-life-cycle cost, which includes energy consumption, maintenance, and service calls. Not only does the metric allow for the comparison of different fan types, motor and drive configurations, and other components at the same duty point, it can be used to calculate energy savings for apples-to-apples comparisons if the comparisons are made at the same duty point.

For example, if the FEI for Fan A is 1.00 and 1.10 for Fan B, then Fan B is 10% more efficient, which translates to 10% energy and emissions savings. If the project calls for more than one fan, multiply that percentage of savings by the number of fans, which can translate into monetary and environmental benefits for the life of the products.

Can you avoid complying with FEI?

You cannot sidestep FEI anywhere in the country, not even if your state does not have an energy code or if the existing code is so old it predates an earlier edition that features the Fan Energy Grade (FEG). FEI is required by the Code of Federal Regulations to be the primary metric for fan energy performance. Minimum FEI levels are in model energy codes, and where those codes are adopted by states, the minimum levels must be met. FEI is ensconced in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure, which has very strict guidelines that went into effect in October 2023. Any fan and energy-related performance metric—including brake horsepower, total efficiency, and static efficiency—must be derived from the test procedure and its rules for using test data to calculate ratings.

For example, if a state code is still using FEG, the manufacturer must still provide the FEI rating. The engineer would meet code with the FEG rating, and the manufacturer would comply with the federal regulatory test procedure by accompanying the FEG rating with the fan’s FEI rating.

How does AMCA International encourage support and adoption of FEI?

The 2013 DOE rulemaking eliminated previously used metrics, including FEG. In response, AMCA International developed FEI—which fully replaced FEG in ASHRAE 90.1-2019—to begin the transition between the two metrics in model and state energy codes.

The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is that even though FEI is a little more than 10 years old, it’s still new to many practicing engineers—FEI is not appearing in project specifications, or office or guide specs, which are the basis for many projects. Similarly, code officials may not be as aware of FEI as they should be or don’t fully understand the metric. AMCA International helped evolve ASHRAE 90.1-2025 and IECC 2027 to require FEI ratings be included in construction documents, which should bring FEI more visibility in submittals and plan reviews.

Additionally, we help support the adoption of FEI by providing educational sessions online and in person. We are also developing programs in partnership with NEEA, leveraging our collective strengths for educating engineers, code officials, and other market actors to understand FEI, apply it, and enforce the requirements in codes.

How do you see the adoption of the FEI evolving in the next few years?

Education is key, and I sincerely think it will make the difference. Once engineers become more familiar with using FEI in manufacturer software, and code officials see how easy it is to check the plans and specs to ensure code compliance, the tide will turn. Code adoption is already happening. There are now more states that use FEI than FEG, given their adoption of IECC 2021, and ASHRAE 90.1 2019 and 2022. California’s Title 20 efficiency regulation and Title 24, which covers FEI in its commercial energy code, are also ramping up in the engineering world.

Because there is no federal energy standard, states are looking to regulate fans like California. AMCA International also worked with the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP) and other non-governmental stakeholders to amend the ASAP Model Bill, which is used to encourage states to regulate products that DOE does not. We did this in time for the fan provisions to go out to states for the 2026 sessions; however, no states will complete a fan regulation in 2026.

What are the top 3 things people need to know about incorporating FEI into commercial or industrial projects?

1. FEI is a metric developed for regulations engineers can apply for fan selections on new construction and retrofit projects. It’s easy for practitioners to use and understand, and can be used to create comparisons that provide the lowest lifecycle cost fan for your project.
2. I advise you to adopt the metric now rather than waiting for your state to adopt a version of it several years from now. FEI is already in model energy codes, and the metric is required by law to accompany any other fan-energy data or ratings. The 2025 edition of ASHRAE 90.1 states the rating must be included in fan schedules and carried into the construction documents. It will also be in IECC 2027.
3. Trust and have confidence in your fan selections by specifying AMCA International-certified FEI-, sound-, and air-performance ratings. All three of those parameters can be included in your specs. In fact, specify any third-party certified products where applicable and available. Doing so will give you greater confidence that they will meet the performance requirements of your systems.