Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 226, November 24, 2010, Pages 71519-72652 Page: 71,607
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Federal Register/Vol. 75, No. 226/Wednesday, November 24, 2010/Proposed Rules
regulated by this rule. DOE seeks
comment on its estimate of the number
of small businesses in the CRE market.
The proposed changes to the test
procedure consist of updating the
referenced industry test procedures to
the most current versions; testing
requirements for units sold with night
curtains and lighting occupancy sensors
or controls installed; and provisions for
testing units that cannot operate at the
specified 38 F integrated average
product temperature.
All commercial refrigeration
equipment for which standards were set
in EPACT 2005 are currently required to
be tested using the DOE test procedure
to show compliance with the EPACT
2005 standard levels. Manufacturers of
equipment for which standards were set
in the 2009 final rule will similarly be
required to test units using the DOE test
procedure to show compliance with the
2009 standards levels beginning January
1, 2012. The current DOE test procedure
references AHRI Standard 1200-2006
and AHAM HRF-1-2004. This test
procedure consists of one 24-hour test at
standard rating conditions to determine
daily energy consumption. Aligning the
DOE test procedure with the most recent
industry test procedures currently in
use-AHRI standard 1200-2010 and
AHAM HRF-1-2008-will simplify
testing requirements and reduce the
burden of testing for both small and
large manufacturers.
For equipment that could be sold with
night curtains installed, the current test
procedure requires one 24-hour test
without the night curtain installed. To
minimize the additional burden of test
on manufacturers, under the proposed
revisions, if a unit is tested and shows
compliance with the relevant energy
conservation standard without night
curtains installed, that unit can also be
sold with night curtains installed
without additional testing. In addition,
if a manufacturer chose to sell cases
only with night curtains installed, only
one 24-hour test would be required. If,
however, a piece of equipment does not
meet DOE's energy conservation
standards without night curtains
installed, DOE proposes to allow the
unit to be tested a second time with
night curtains installed. In this instance,
assuming the energy conservation
standard is met, the case would also be
required to be sold with night curtains
installed. This would require an
increased burden of test on only those
units that cannot show compliance with
DOE energy conservation standards
without night curtains installed. As
DOE proposes to incorporate provisions
for testing a unit with night curtainsinstalled into the same 24-hour test, the
burden of conducting the test with and
without night curtains is approximately
the same.
DOE estimates that testing a single
unit in accordance with the current DOE
test procedure takes 1 week of
laboratory time and costs approximately
$5,000. If two tests are required, there
will be an increase of approximately
$5,000 per unit tested. This estimate is
based on information from
manufacturers and private testing
services quoted on behalf of DOE in the
last 2 years for completing a test
according to AHRI Standard 1200-2006
on commercial refrigerators, freezers,
and refrigerator-freezers.
DOE also researched the number of
CRE manufacturers that sell open cases,
which would potentially be sold with a
night curtain. DOE found that larger
manufacturers typically offer more
unique individual basic models than
smaller manufacturers. DOE also found
that the larger manufacturers sell more
open cases than smaller manufacturers.
DOE estimates that for both small and
large manufacturers who offer open
cases, open cases that could be sold
with night curtains comprised about 20
percent of total models, or
approximately between 1 and 50
models. While testing with and without
night curtains will not be required for
all these models, at this time DOE
cannot predict the number of cases that
will require two tests because the
standards with which this test
procedure will be used to show
compliance have not been established.
Therefore, assuming conservatively that
half of the open cases that could be sold
with night curtains will not meet the
new energy conservation standards and
will require two tests, DOE's analysis
found that the incremental cost of
running the extra tests ranged from
approximately $2,500 to $125,000.
Further, DOE identified that a single
small manufacturer produces the
majority of all open cases produced by
small manufacturers. In fact, many
small manufacturers identified by DOE
did not sell open cases at all.
DOE understands, however, that small
manufacturers have less expendable
capital available and may be more
affected by the additional cost of testing.
To estimate the additional cost of testing
due to night curtains for small
manufacturers, DOE estimated the
average cost of additional testing for all
open cases compared to the average
annual value added statistic. The
average value added statistic is
representative of an entity's annual
gross operating margin and is calculated
by subtracting the cost of materials,supplies, containers, fuel, purchased
electricity, and contract work from the
value of shipments. DOE analyzed the
impact on the smallest manufacturers of
commercial refrigeration equipment
since these manufacturers would likely
be the most vulnerable to cost increases.
For CRE manufacturers, the two
smallest entities were in the 25 to 49
and 50 to 99 employee size category in
NAICS 333415 as reported by the U.S.
Census.4 The average annual value
added for manufacturers in these size
ranges from the census data was $2.97
to $6.38 million in 2001$, per the 2002
Economic Census, or approximately
$3.56 to $7.64 million per year in 2010$
after adjusting for inflation using the
implicit price deflator for gross
domestic product.5
DOE also examined the average value
added statistic provided by Census for
all manufacturers with between 100 and
249 employees in this NAICS
classification as the most representative
value from the 2002 Economic Census
data of the CRE manufacturers. More
than half (13 manufacturers) of the
identified small manufacturers fell into
this category, including the
manufacturer that has the greatest
percentage of open cases that could be
sold with night curtains. The average
annual value added statistic for all small
manufacturers with between 100 and
249 employees was $16.3 million
(2010$).
Given this data, and assuming the
estimate of $5,000 for the additional
testing costs is accurate, DOE concluded
that the additional costs for testing
under the proposed requirements would
be approximately 0.4 percent of annual
value added for the two smallest firms.
The additional costs would be
approximately 0.3 percent of the average
annual value added for representative
small CRE manufacturers with between
100 and 249 employees. For the
manufacturer that sells the greatest
percentage of open cases that could be
sold with a night curtain, 56 percent,
DOE estimates the additional cost of
testing would equal $80,000, or 0.6
percent of the average annual value
added.
The requirements for units sold with
lighting occupancy sensors and controls
will not include additional testing.
4 U.S. Bureau of the Census, American Factfinder,
2002 Economic Census, Manufacturing, Industry
Series, Industry Statistics by Employment Size,
available at http /actfinder.census.gov/servlet/
IBQTable? ?bm y&-ds name =EC023114&-
ibtype= NAICS2002&-NAICS2002=333415&-
geoid= &-_industry= 333415&-
NAICS2002sector-8699171 &-_lang=en&-
fds_name ECO2oA1.
5U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau ofEconomic Analysis, available at http://
www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/SelectTable.asp.71607
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United States. Office of the Federal Register. Federal Register, Volume 75, Number 226, November 24, 2010, Pages 71519-72652, periodical, November 24, 2010; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52807/m1/97/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.