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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 153 / Thursday, August 12, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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TABLE II2AUGUST 2019 RFI WRITTEN COMMENTS
Organizations
Reference in this NOPD

Organization type
Whirlpool Corporation
GE Appliances
Appliance Standards Awareness Project and the California Energy Commission.
Edison Electric Institute
Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers
Pacific Gas and Electric Company PG&E, San Diego Gas and Electric SDG&E, and Southern California Edison SCE.

Whirlpool
GE Appliances
ASAP and CEC

Manufacturer.
Manufacturer.
Energy Efficiency Advocate and State Energy Agency.
Investor Owned Utility Association.
Industry Association.
Investor Owned Utility Association.

A parenthetical reference at the end of a comment quotation or paraphrase provides the location of the comments in the public record.4
III. General Discussion DOE developed this proposed determination after considering comments and information from interested parties that represent a variety of interests. This NOPD
addresses issues raised by these commenters.

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A. Product Classes and Scope of Coverage When evaluating and establishing energy conservation standards, DOE
divides covered products into product classes by the type of energy used or by capacity or other performance-related features that justify differing standards.
In making a determination whether a performance-related feature justifies a different standard, DOE must consider such factors as the utility of the feature to the consumer and other factors DOE
determines are appropriate. 42 U.S.C.
6295q The microwave oven classes for this proposed determination are discussed in further detail in section IV.B.4 of this document. This proposed determination covers microwave ovens defined as household cooking appliances consisting of a compartment designed to cook or heat food by means of microwave energy, including microwave ovens with or without thermal elements designed for surface browning of food and convection microwave ovens. This includes any microwave oven components of a combined cooking product. 10 CFR
430.2. The scope of coverage is discussed in further detail in section IV.B.1 of this document.
4 The parenthetical reference provides a reference for information located in the docket. Docket No.
EERE2017BTSTD0023, which is maintained at https www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EERE-2017BT-STD-0023. The references are arranged as follows: Commenter name, comment docket ID
number, page of that document.

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B. Test Procedure EPCA sets forth generally applicable criteria and procedures for DOEs adoption and amendment of test procedures. 42 U.S.C. 6293
Manufacturers of covered products must use these test procedures to certify to DOE that their product complies with energy conservation standards and to quantify the energy use of their product.
42 U.S.C. 6295s and 42 U.S.C.
6293c DOEs current energy conservation standards for microwave ovens are expressed in terms of average watts of standby mode power consumption. See 10 CFR 430.23j3.
DOE originally established test procedures for microwave ovens in an October 3, 1997 final rule that addressed active mode energy use only. 62 FR
51976. Those procedures were based on the International Electrotechnical Commission IEC Standard 705
Second Edition 1998 and Amendment 21993, Methods for Measuring the Performance of Microwave Ovens for Households and Similar Purposes IEC Standard 705. On July 22, 2010, DOE published in the Federal Register a final rule for the microwave oven test procedures July 2010 Repeal Final Rule, in which it repealed the regulatory test procedures for measuring the cooking efficiency of microwave ovens. 75 FR 42579. In the July 2010
Repeal Final Rule, DOE determined that the existing microwave oven test procedure did not produce representative and repeatable test results. 75 FR 42579, 42580. DOE stated at that time that it was unaware of any test procedures that had been developed that address these concerns. 75 FR
42579, 42581.
On March 9, 2011, DOE published an interim final rule establishing test procedures for microwave ovens regarding the measurement of the average standby mode and average off mode power consumption that incorporated by reference specific clauses from the IEC Standard 62301, Household electrical appliances Measurement of standby power, First
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Edition 200506 IEC Standard 62301
First Edition. 76 FR 12825. On January 18, 2013, DOE published a final rule amending the microwave oven test procedure to incorporate by reference certain provisions of the revised IEC
Standard 62301 Edition 2.0 201101, along with clarifying language for the measurement of standby mode and off mode energy use. 78 FR 4015.
On December 16, 2016, DOE
published a final rule December 2016
TP Final Rule amending the cooking products test procedure to, in part, incorporate methods for calculating the annual standby mode and off mode energy consumption of the microwave oven component of a combined cooking product by allocating a portion of the combined low-power mode energy consumption measured for the combined cooking product to the microwave oven component using the estimated annual cooking hours for the given components comprising the combined cooking product. 81 FR
91418, 9143891439. That final rule, which resulted in the most recent version of the microwave oven test procedure, was codified in the CFR at Appendix I.
On January 18, 2018, DOE published an RFI January 2018 RFI initiating a data collection process to assist in its evaluation of the test procedure for microwave ovens. 83 FR 2366. On November 14, 2019, DOE published a NOPR November 2019 TP NOPR
proposing amendments to the existing test procedure with requirements for both the clock display and network functionality when testing standby mode and off mode power consumption and certain technical corrections. 84 FR
61836. DOE subsequently published an SNOPR on August 3, 2021 August 2021 TP SNOPR providing additional clarification on the requirements for testing microwave ovens with network functionality. 86 FR 41759.

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