[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 96 (Thursday, May 17, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29331-29333]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-11998]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
[Case No. RF-022]
Publication of the Petition for Waiver From Sanyo E&E Corporation
From the Department of Energy Residential Refrigerator and
Refrigerator-Freezer Test Procedure
AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of
Energy.
ACTION: Notice of re-opening of public comment period.
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SUMMARY: On April 2, 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
published the Sanyo E&E Corporation (Sanyo) petition for waiver from
the residential refrigerator and refrigerator-freezer test procedure.
Comments were required to be submitted by May 2, 2012. This document
announces that the period for submitting comments on the Sanyo petition
for waiver is re-opened until June 18, 2012.
DATES: DOE will accept comments, data, and information regarding the
Sanyo petition for waiver received no later than June 18, 2012.
ADDRESSES: Any comments submitted must identify the Sanyo E&E
Corporation petition for waiver, and provide case number RF-022.
Comments may be submitted using any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
Email: [email protected]. Include the case
number [Case No. RF-022] in the subject line of the message.
Mail: Ms. Brenda Edwards, U.S. Department of Energy,
Building Technologies Program, Mailstop EE-2J/1000 Independence Avenue
SW., Washington, DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (202) 586-2945. Please
submit one signed original paper copy.
Hand Delivery/Courier: Ms. Brenda Edwards, U.S. Department
of Energy, Building Technologies Program, 950 L'Enfant Plaza SW., Suite
600, Washington, DC 20024. Please submit one signed original paper
copy.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, visit the U.S. Department of Energy, Resource Room
of the Building Technologies Program, 950 L'Enfant Plaza SW., 6th
Floor, Washington, DC 20024, (202) 586-2945, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00
p.m. Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Please call Ms.
Brenda Edwards at the above telephone number for additional
information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Bryan Berringer, U.S. Department
of Energy, Building Technologies Program, Mail Stop EE-2J, Forrestal
Building, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585-0121.
Telephone: (202) 586-0371. Email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On April 2, 2012, DOE published the Sanyo
petition for waiver from the residential refrigerator, refrigerator-
freezer, and freezer test procedure in the Federal Register (77 FR
19654). The notice provided for the submission of comments by May 2,
2012. After the notice of petition for waiver was published, Sanyo
provided DOE with
[[Page 29332]]
clarifications on certain items in its original petition, and requested
that the comment period for its petition for waiver be extended so that
commenters would have an opportunity to comment on the petition with
these clarifications included. DOE is publishing Sanyo's request in its
entirety. The request contains no confidential information. The request
includes a suggested alternate test procedure to determine the energy
consumption of Sanyo's specified hybrid refrigerators. To provide all
manufacturers of domestically marketed units of the same product type
additional time to submit comments on the additional information
provided by Sanyo, DOE has determined that re-opening of the public
comment period is appropriate and is hereby re-opening the comment
period. DOE will consider any comments received by June 18, 2012 and
deems any comments received between May 2, 2012 and June 18, 2012 to be
timely submitted.
Further Information on Submitting Comments
Under 10 CFR part 1004.11, any person submitting information that
he or she believes to be confidential and exempt by law from public
disclosure should submit two copies: One copy of the document including
all the information believed to be confidential, and one copy of the
document with the information believed to be confidential deleted. DOE
will make its own determination about the confidential status of the
information and treat it according to its determination.
Factors of interest to DOE when evaluating requests to treat
submitted information as confidential include (1) a description of the
items, (2) whether and why such items are customarily treated as
confidential within the industry, (3) whether the information is
generally known by or available from other sources, (4) whether the
information has previously been made available to others without
obligation concerning its confidentiality, (5) an explanation of the
competitive injury to the submitting person which would result from
public disclosure, (6) when such information might lose its
confidential character due to the passage of time, and (7) why
disclosure of the information would be contrary to the public interest.
Dated: Issued in Washington, DC, on May 9, 2012.
Kathleen B. Hogan,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency, Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy.
BEFORE THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Washington, DC 20585
In the Matter of: SANYO E&E Corp., Petitioner).
Case Number: RF-022
REQUEST FOR EXTENSION OF COMMENT DEADLINE
SANYO E&E Corporation (``SEE'') submits this Request for Extension
of Comment Deadline (``Request'') with respect to its Petition for
Waiver (``Petition'') filed with the Department of Energy (``DOE'') on
June 2, 2011. Notice of SEE's Petition was published in the April 2,
2012 Federal Register (Vol. 77, No. 63, p. 19654) (``Notice'') and the
public comment period is currently scheduled to close on May 2, 2012.
SEE respectfully requests that interested parties be granted thirty
(30) additional days from the publication of this Request to file
comments on SEE's Petition so that any commenters have sufficient time
to provide a response incorporating the clarifications to the Petition
SEE provides below. Granting the extension will not prejudice any
interested parties, and will promote the efficient resolution of SEE's
Petition.
1. SEE's Proposed Alternative Testing Method For Its Hybrid Models
As SEE explained in its Petition, which SEE incorporates herein,
SEE's hybrid models contain design characteristics that prevent testing
of the basic models according to the test procedures prescribed in 10
C.F.R. Sec. 430, subpart B, appendix A1. Specifically, while the
beverage compartment of these hybrid models is cable of achieving
temperatures at or below 38 [deg]F, the wine storage compartment of
these single-cabinet units can only achieve a minimum temperature of 45
[deg]F. As a result, it is impossible to test these hybrid models under
DOE's current testing procedures, which mandate that energy consumption
be measured when each compartment temperature is set at 38 [deg]F.
In order to properly certify and rate these hybrid models, SEE
proposed the following two formulas to measure the maximum allowable
energy consumption of the wine storage and beverage compartments,
respectively:
Energy consumption of the wine storage compartment:
EWine = {ET1 + [(ET2-ET1) x (55 [deg]F-TW1)/(TW2-TW1)]{time} *0.85
\1\
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\1\ SEE clarifies here that the .85 correction factor should be
applied to the entire formula for the wine storage compartment, {ET1
+ [(ET2-ET1) x (55 [deg]F-TW1)/(TW2-TW1)]{time} .
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Energy consumption of the refrigerated beverage compartment:
EBeverage Compartment= ET1 + [(ET2-ET1) x (38 [deg]F-TBC1)/(TBC2-
TBC1)].
As SEE also explained, the K factor from CAN/CSA 300-08 6.3.1.2 and
HRF-1-2007 8.7.2.1.1 was used because SEE's hybrid models will
typically have a door-opening usage aligned with household freezers,
and thus 0.85 was the employed K factor (correction factor). Further,
to evaluate the models in a manner truly representative of their actual
energy consumption characteristics, the standard temperature of single
wine coolers (55 [deg]F) for the wine storage compartment and the
standard temperature (38 [deg]F) for the refrigerated beverage
compartment was used.\2\
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\2\ As DOE itself noted in its Framework Public Meeting for Wine
Chillers and Miscellaneous Refrigeration Products, the Association
of Home Appliance Manufacturers, the California Energy Commission,
and Natural Resources Canada ``all use a standardized compartment
temperature of 55 [deg]F'' and a .85 K factor. Framework at pp. 34-
35, available at http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/pdfs/wc_fw_meeting_presentation_draft.pdf. In the
absence of an existing federal standard, SEE accordingly employed
these prevailing standards in its proposed alternative testing
method with respect to the wine storage compartment of SEE's hybrid
models.
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Applying these proposals, and in accordance with 10 C.F.R. Sec.
430, subpart B, Appendix A1, SEE hybrid model MBCM24FW, which would be
classified as a compact refrigerator with automatic defrost without
through-the-door ice service and which has a total adjusted volume of
5.75 cubic feet, would have a maximum allowable annual energy usage of
436 kWh/year. Similarly, SEE hybrid models JUB248LB, JUB248RB,
JUB248LW, JUB248RW, KBCO24LS, KBCS24LS, KBCO24RS, and KBCS24RS, which
would also be classified as compact refrigerators with automatic
defrost without through-the-door ice service and which have a total
adjusted volume of 5.41 cubic feet, would have a maximum allowable
annual energy usage of 431 kWh/year.
2. Clarification Of SEE Proposed Alternative Testing Method
In its Notice, DOE stated that ``[w]e also note that the energy
consumption of the basic models detailed in Sanyo's
[[Page 29333]]
petition suggests that these products, when tested in accordance with
the alternate test procedure Sanyo is requesting to use, would appear
to use an amount of energy that exceeds the energy conservation
standards for the likely product classes that would apply.'' Notice at
19655. SEE apologizes for any confusion caused by the proposed formulas
in its Petition, as SEE did not mean to suggest that 436 kWh/year and
431 kWh/year were the actual energy consumption values for the
applicable hybrid models. Rather, SEE was attempting to demonstrate
that these energy consumption figures would be the theoretical maximum
allowable annual values under SEE's proposed alternative testing
method. In order to avoid further confusion, SEE provides below a more
detailed explanation as to how it derived these maximum allowable
values.
With respect to basic model MBCM24FWBS, the total adjusted volume
of the beverage compartment is 2.8 cubic feet, while the total adjusted
volume of the wine storage compartment is 2.95 cubic feet, for a total
adjusted volume of 5.75 cubic feet. To calculate the maximum allowable
annual energy consumption figure, however, SEE first calculated the
maximum allowable energy consumption of this model as if it were
entirely governed by the class 13 all-refrigerator standard, and then
calculated the maximum allowable energy consumption figure as if it
were entirely governed by the current CAN/CSA-C300-08 type 20 wine
chiller standard:
10 CFR 430.32 class 13 all-refrigerator: 12.70 x 5.75 + 355 kWh/year =
428 kWh/year
CAN/CSA-C300-08 type 20 wine chiller: 17.4 x 5.75 + 344 kWh/year = 444
kWh/year
SEE then took the weighted average of these figures based upon the
actual total adjusted volume of the beverage compartment (2.8 cubic
feet) and the wine storage compartment (2.95 cubic feet) to derive the
proposed maximum allowable energy consumption figure contained in its
Petition:
Combined standard: (428 kWh/year x 2.8/5.75) + (444 kWh/year x 2.95/
5.75) = 436 KWh/year
With respect to basic models JUB248LB, JUB248RB, JUB248LW,
JUB248RW, KBCO24LS, KBCS24LS, KBCO24RS, and KBCS24RS, SEE derived the
maximum allowable energy consumption figure in the same manner, with
the only difference being that the total adjusted volume of the wine
storage compartment is 2.61 cubic feet for these basic models (the
beverage compartment for these basic models is also 2.8 cubic feet),
for a total adjusted volume of 5.41 cubic feet:
10 CFR 430.32 class 13 all-refrigerator: 12.70 x 5.41 + 355 kWh/year =
424 kWh/year
CAN/CSA-C300-08 type 20 wine chiller: 17.4 x 5.41 + 344 kWh/year = 438
kWh/year
Combined standard: (424 kWh/year x 2.8/5.41) + (438 kWh/year x 2.61/
5.41) = 431 kWh/year
Thus, the 436 kWh/year and 431 kWh/year figures reflect the
weighted average of the maximum allowable energy consumption standard
pertaining to class 13 all-refrigerators, as applied to SEE's hybrid
models' beverage compartment, and the CAN/CSA-C300-08 type 20 standard
for wine chillers, as applied to SEE's hybrid models' wine storage
compartment. SEE realizes that the bases for these figures may not have
been entirely clear from SEE's Petition, and therefore SEE respectfully
requests that DOE publish this clarification in order to provide
interested parties with a more thorough understanding of how SEE
derived its proposed alternative testing method and related maximum
allowable energy consumption figures. SEE further requests that
interested parties be granted thirty (30) additional days from the
publication of this Request to file comments on SEE's Petition so that
interested parties have sufficient time to provide a proper response
without the need for an additional round of comments.
If DOE requires any additional information to properly consider
SEE's Petition, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned.
Respectfully submitted,
/s---------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan G. Fishel
Adam D. Bowser
ARENT FOX LLP
1050 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036-5369
(202) 857-6450
[email protected]
[email protected]
April 20, 2012
[FR Doc. 2012-11998 Filed 5-16-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P