In the Technology Newsletter emailed to you last week, I listed sources of information for the mandatory certification of lighting and ceiling fan products for California, the Dept. of Energy and the Federal Trade Commission.

According to the original rules, ceiling fan products had to be certified separately with the DOE and the FTC. However, in response to questions on Friday, the FTC confirmed today that ceiling fan products are to be certified just like lighting products via the DOE's Compliance Certification Management System (CCMS).  

In other words, all federally regulated lighting and fan products can be certified via the one DOE database. That's good news and it simplifies things a bit.

The DOE database can be accessed here. As I indicated, you have to register to actually submit product information, but you can view the forms and instructions without registering by clicking "Product Templates." The database itself can be viewed by product by clicking "Compliance Certification Database" on the left side of the page.  

If you have questions about the process, ask them via email or call 505-663-1303, x.101.  

You can also find more details about certifying as well as labeling in the Jan. 20, 2013, Federal Register. (Go to p. 2208 for the ceiling fan information.)

My thanks to Jeff Wishek at Fanimation for informing me of the change and helping to sort things out.