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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 134 / Friday, July 16, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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would not meet the applicable statutory criteria, DOE would engage in notice and comment rulemaking before issuing a final determination that new or amended energy conservation standards are not warranted.
A. Authority The Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended EPCA,1 among other things, authorizes DOE to regulate the energy efficiency of a number of consumer products and certain industrial equipment. 42 U.S.C. 6291
6317 Title III, Part C 2 of EPCA, added by Public Law 95619, Title IV, section 441a 42 U.S.C. 63116317, as codified, established the Energy Conservation Program for Certain Industrial Equipment, which sets forth a variety of provisions designed to improve energy efficiency. This equipment includes walk-in coolers and freezers, the subject of this document.
42 U.S.C. 63111G
Under EPCA, DOEs energy conservation program consists essentially of four parts: 1 Testing, 2
labeling, 3 Federal energy conservation standards, and 4 certification and enforcement procedures. Relevant provisions of EPCA include definitions 42 U.S.C. 6311, test procedures 42
U.S.C. 6314, labeling provisions 42
U.S.C. 6315, energy conservation standards 42 U.S.C. 6313, and the authority to require information and reports from manufacturers 42 U.S.C.
6316a; 42 U.S.C. 6299.
Federal energy efficiency requirements for covered equipment established under EPCA generally supersede State laws and regulations concerning energy conservation testing, labeling, and standards. 42 U.S.C.
6316a and b; 42 U.S.C. 6297 DOE
may, however, grant waivers of Federal preemption in limited instances for particular State laws or regulations, in accordance with the procedures and other provisions set forth under 42
U.S.C. 6316a applying the preemption waiver provisions of 42 U.S.C. 6297.
DOE must follow specific statutory criteria for prescribing new or amended standards for covered equipment. EPCA
requires that any new or amended energy conservation standard prescribed by the Secretary of Energy Secretary be designed to achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that is technologically feasible and economically justified. 42 U.S.C.
6316a; 42 U.S.C. 6295o2A The 1 All references to EPCA in this document refer to the statute as amended through the Energy Act of 2020, Public Law 116260 Dec. 27, 2020.
2 For editorial reasons, upon codification in the U.S. Code, Part C was redesignated Part A1.

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Secretary may not prescribe an amended or new standard that will not result in significant conservation of energy, or is not technologically feasible or economically justified. 42 U.S.C.
6316a; 42 U.S.C. 6295o3
EPCA specifies standards for walkins. First, all walk-in doors narrower than 3 feet 9 inches and shorter than 7
feet must have automatic door closers that firmly close all walk-in doors that have been closed to within 1 inch of full closure, and must also have strip doors, spring hinged doors, or other methods of minimizing infiltration when doors are open. Additionally, walk-ins must contain wall, ceiling, and door insulation of at least R25 for coolers and R32 for freezers, excluding glazed portions of doors and structural members, and floor insulation of at least R28 for freezers. Walk-in evaporator fan motors of under 1 horsepower hp and less than 460 volts must be electronically commutated motors brushless direct current motors or three-phase motors, and walk-in condenser fan motors of under 1
horsepower must use permanent split capacitor motors, electronically commutated motors, or three-phase motors. Interior light sources must have an efficacy of 40 lumens per watt or more, including any ballast losses; lessefficacious lights may only be used in conjunction with a timer or device that turns off the lights within 15 minutes of when the walk-in is unoccupied. See 42
U.S.C. 6313f1.
Second, walk-ins have requirements related to electronically commutated motors used in them. See 42 U.S.C.
6313f2. Specifically, in those walkins that use an evaporator fan motor with a rating of under 1 hp and less than 460 volts, that motor must be either a three-phase motor or an electronically commutated motor.3 42 U.S.C.
6313f2A
Third, EPCA requires that walk-in freezers with transparent reach-in doors must have triple-pane glass with either heat-reflective treated glass or gas fill for doors and windows. Transparent walkin cooler doors must have either doublepane glass with heat-reflective treated glass and gas fill or triple-pane glass with heat-reflective treated glass or gas fill. 42 U.S.C. 6313f3AB For walk-ins with transparent reach-in doors, EPCA also prescribes specific 3 The requirement regarding electronically commutated motors was predicated on DOE
determining that more than one manufacturer offered such motors for sale. See 42 U.S.C.
6313f2A. DOE documented this determination in Docket EERE2008BTSTD00150072
available at www.regulations.gov/document/EERE2008-BT-STD-0015-0072.

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anti-sweat heater-related requirements:
Walk-ins without anti-sweat heater controls must have a heater power draw of no more than 7.1 or 3.0 watts per square foot of door opening for freezers and coolers, respectively. Walk-ins with anti-sweat heater controls must either have a heater power draw of no more than 7.1 or 3.0 watts per square foot of door opening for freezers and coolers, respectively, or the anti-sweat heater controls must reduce the energy use of the heater in a quantity corresponding to the relative humidity of the air outside the door or to the condensation on the inner glass pane. See 42 U.S.C.
6313f3CD.
Additionally, EPCA prescribed two cycles of WICF-specific rulemakings;
the first to establish performance-based standards that achieve the maximum improvement in energy that the Secretary determines is technologically feasible and economically justified, and the second to determine whether to amend those standards. 42 U.S.C.
6313f4 and 5 EPCA also requires that, not later than 6 years after the issuance of any final rule establishing or amending a standard, DOE evaluate the energy conservation standards for each type of covered equipment, including those at issue here, and publish either a notification of determination that the standards do not need to be amended, or a notice of proposed rulemaking NOPR that includes new proposed energy conservation standards proceeding to a final rule, as appropriate. 42 U.S.C. 6316a; 42
U.S.C. 6295m1 DOE is publishing this RFI to inform its decision consistent with its obligations under EPCA.
B. Rulemaking History On June 3, 2014, DOE published a final rule June 2014 ECS final rule establishing performance-based standards for the components of a walkin: Doors, panels, and refrigeration systems. 79 FR 32050. The standards were expressed in terms of daily energy consumption for walk-in doors, R-value for walk-in panels, and annual walk-in energy factor AWEF for walk-in refrigeration systems. Id.
After publication of the June 2014
ECS final rule, the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute AHRI and Lennox International, Inc.
Lennox, a manufacturer of walk-in refrigeration systems, filed petitions for review of DOEs final rule and DOEs subsequent denial of a petition for reconsideration of the rule 79 FR 59090
October 1, 2014 with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Lennox Intl v. Dept of Energy, Case No. 1460535 5th Cir.. As a result
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