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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 194 / Tuesday, October 12, 2021 / Rules and Regulations labels, must be made in accordance with an amended test procedure, beginning 180 days after publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. 42 U.S.C.
6293c2 EPCA provides an allowance for individual manufacturers to petition DOE for an extension of the 180-day period if the manufacturer may experience undue hardship in meeting the deadline. 42 U.S.C. 6293c3 To receive such an extension, petitions must be filed with DOE no later than 60
days before the end of the 180-day period and must detail how the manufacturer will experience undue hardship. Id.
As discussed in section III.G.3, compliance with the amended icemaking energy use adder for products with one or more automatic icemakers will be required for representations of energy use on or after the compliance date of any amended energy conservation standards for refrigeration products.
Upon the compliance date of test procedure provisions in this final rule, any waivers that had been previously issued and are in effect that pertain to issues addressed by such provisions are terminated. 10 CFR 430.27h3
Recipients of any such waivers are required to test the products subject to the waiver according to the amended test procedure as of the compliance date of the amended test procedure. The amendments adopted in this document pertain to issues addressed by a waiver granted to GEA case nos. RF042 and 2020007. Per 10 CFR 430.27l, the publication of this final rule eliminates the need for the continuation of granted waivers. As discussed previously, DOE
is not amending the test procedure to address the waiver granted to Liebherr case no. RF035, as the products for which the waiver was required are no longer available and the waiver is no longer necessary. The publication of this final rule terminates this waiver consistent with 10 CFR 430.27h3 and 10 CFR 430.27l. Under 10 CFR
430.27h3, the waiver automatically terminates on the date on which use of the test procedure is required to demonstrate compliance.
K. Test Procedure Costs In this document, DOE amends the existing test procedures for refrigeration products by incorporating by reference the current version of an industry standard, with minor modifications as discussed in the previous sections of this final rule. This updated reference results in the following substantive changes compared to the existing test approach: 1 Clarifying test setup provisions; 2 specifying certain test
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condition measurements and applicability to data recording periods;
3 allowing for stabilization data to also serve as test data for certain product types; 4 specifying stabilization requirements for products not able to meet the existing requirements; 5
revising the automatic icemaking energy consumption adder; and 6 requiring connected function communication modules to be on, but not connected to a network, for testing.
DOEs analysis of these amendments indicates a resulting net cost savings to manufacturers. Further discussion of the cost impacts of the test procedure amendments are presented in the following paragraphs.
1. Amendment Regarding the Stabilization and Test Periods DOE is adopting the provisions in HRF12019 to combine the stabilization period with the test period for certain models of refrigeration products. This would decrease test burden by shortening the test duration for any model with stabilization currently determined according to sections 2.9a of appendix A or 2.7a of appendix B and with non-automatic defrost, or that would be tested to using the two-part test period. This amendment would apply to all refrigeration products.
Based on review of the CCMS, DOE
has identified 3,618 models of refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers, and 583 models of MREFs that would be impacted by this amendment.
DOE expects that this amendment would decrease test duration by at least 6 hours for these models reflecting the 3-hour minimum test period duration at two temperature settings and up to 48
hours reflecting 24-hour test periods at each setting. Based on an estimated decreased test duration of at least 6
hours i.e., a decrease in test time of greater than ten percent, DOE assumed a cost savings of approximately ten percent i.e., $500 per test.33
Additionally, based on data from DOEs Compliance Certification Database, DOE
anticipates that manufacturers would replace or modify existing models every 3.5 years. Therefore, on average, refrigerator, refrigerator-freezer, and freezer and MREF manufacturers would introduce approximately 1,200 new or modified covered models each year that 33 DOE expects that costs would decrease by a smaller percentage than the total reduction in test time due to fixed overhead and labor requirements for testing i.e., test set up and data analysis would be unchanged. The total cost per test is based on FSIs comment stating between $4,500 and $5,000
per refrigerator test conducted at outside laboratories. FSI, No. 6 at p. 1

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would use these shorter overall testing periods. Because DOE requires manufacturers to test at least two units per model, manufacturers would on average conduct 2,400 tests annually using these shorter overall testing periods. Using these estimates, DOE
anticipates industry cost savings of approximately $1,200,000 per year for refrigeration product manufacturers.
DOE expects that the amendment would not impact the representations of energy efficiency or energy use for refrigeration products currently on the market. Manufacturers would be able to rely on data generated under the current test procedure. As such, manufacturers would not be required to retest refrigeration products as a result of DOEs adoption of the amendment to the test procedure stabilization period.
2. Amendment Regarding Energy Use Associated With Automatic Icemaking DOE is amending the automatic icemaker energy use adder in the test procedures for refrigeration products with automatic icemakers these amendments would reflect an energy use reduction of 56 kWh per year. As discussed in section III.G.3 of this document, DOE is not requiring use of the amended automatic icemaker energy use adder until the compliance dates of any amended energy conservation standards for refrigeration products that account for the amended energy use value. Therefore, manufacturers will not be required to re-certify or re-label products with automatic icemakers as a result of the amended automatic icemaker energy use adder adopted in this final rule and will incur no corresponding costs.
3. Impact of the Other Amendments DOE anticipates that the remainder of the amendments would not impact manufacturers test or certification costs.
Most of the amendments provide additional specificity to the applicability and conduct of the test procedures. These amendments include:
1 Clarifying test setup provisions; 2
specifying certain test condition measurements and applicability to data recording periods; 3 specifying stabilization requirements for products not able to meet the existing requirements; and 4 requiring connected function communication modules to be on, but not connected to a network, for testing.
While these amendments are not expected to impact measured energy use compared to the existing test procedure, manufacturers may opt to re-test models according to the amended test procedure. Because DOE requires
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