**ENERGY STAR^®^ Hot Food Holding Cabinet Industry Meeting**

**Hilton Chicago, Illinois**

# May 20, 2003

# MEETING NOTES

In conjunction with the National Restaurant Association (NRA) Show, EPA
conducted a meeting with product manufacturers and other interested
parties to discuss the Draft 1 ENERGY STAR Hot Food Holding Cabinet
specification. To view the Draft 1 specification, meeting presentation,
and attendee list visit the ENERGY STAR Product Development Web site at
[www.energystar.gov/productdevelopment](http://www.energystar.gov/productdevelopment).

Provided below is a summary of the discussions that took place during
the meeting. Each section ends with comments and/or questions that were
posed by the group; ENERGY STAR representatives are working to address
these items.

**[Presentation: ENERGY STAR Commercial Food Service Equipment Industry
Meeting -- Hot Food Holding Cabinets]{.underline}**

Rachel Schmeltz, EPA

##### ENERGY STAR Overview and the Potential Savings of Labeling Hot Food Holding Cabinets

Ms. Schmeltz began the meeting with an overview of the ENERGY STAR
program. She then explained the criteria that EPA uses in determining
whether or not to include a new product in the ENERGY STAR suite of
products and the preliminary research that takes place leading up to a
draft specification. Ms. Schmeltz shared the impact that ENERGY STAR has
had on the marketplace, including a more than 40% consumer awareness of
the ENERGY STAR brand. She then walked through the requirements of the
ENERGY STAR Partnership Agreement and partner commitments that must be
met to participate in the program. Ms. Schmeltz concluded this portion
of the presentation with the energy and dollar savings potential of
implementing an ENERGY STAR specification for hot food holding cabinets
based on the proposed Draft 1 performance requirements and calculations
provided by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

#### Draft 1 Hot Food Holding Cabinet Specification Discussion

Ms. Schmeltz lead the group through the second portion of the
presentation which walked through each section of the Draft 1
Eligibility Criteria, including: definitions, specification levels,
testing and reporting requirements, and specification effective and
launch dates. Comments and questions for each section of the
specification are provided below.

**Sections 1-2: Definitions and Qualifying Products**

[Question to Group]{.underline}: Are there additional product types that
should be considered in this specification?

-   Will dual function equipment be allowed to qualify under this
    specification (i.e., cook and hold within the same piece of
    equipment)?

[Response]{.underline}: No, dual function equipment would not be able to
qualify under this version of the specification. Only those hot food
holding cabinets whose only function is to hold food at a specific
constant temperature, would qualify. In order to consider dual function
equipment EPA would have to take into account the cooking energy
consumption or other metrics. EPA could consider this type of equipment
in future versions of the specification, if manufacturers are
interested.

-   An additional product category that could fall under this
    specification is glass display merchandisers. Meeting participants
    thought that they should meet the same requirements as solid door
    hot food holding cabinet models. This would be difficult due to
    potential heat loss through the glass; however, there are models
    that could potentially qualify with enough insulation.

[Question to Group]{.underline}: Should there be an operating
temperature requirement in the definition for hot food holding cabinet?

-   NSF uses 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It was suggested that EPA refer to
    the NSF definition, which includes a temperature range, for
    inclusion in the specification. However, it was mentioned that the
    150 F test temperature in the ASTM test method had been developed
    through discussions with both manufacturers and end-users,
    therefore, this temperature would serve the purpose of
    differentiating holding cabinet energy performance.

# 

# Section 3: Energy Efficiency Specifications

[Question to Group]{.underline}: Should EPA further define the full-,
three quarter-, and half-size cabinet subcategories?

-   The number of doors could pose an issue for the subcategories listed
    in the Draft 1 specification. EPA needs to determine an internal
    volume and dimensions to specify the appropriate energy performance.

-   EPA could use watts/ft^3^ to measure performance. Although in
    theory, it would be harder for the smaller units to meet a
    specification level that also applies to larger units, this should
    not be a significant factor given the large gap in energy
    consumption between the insulated and non-insulated cabinets. EPA
    could continue to use subcategories and include watts/ft^3^ metrics,
    as appropriate, to represent the different sizes, based on volume.
    However an overall watts/ft^3^ threshold value would probably be
    adequate for all sizes of holding cabinets.

-   The California Energy Commission (CEC) has a database of products
    but no data yet on hot food holding cabinets.

-   The Food Service Technology Center (FSTC) offered to test products,
    however, not all of the market is represented in the meeting.

-   If EPA had more data, the subcategories could be broken down by
    volume (ft^3^). Several individuals commented that this was the
    direction in which EPA should go in terms of defining subcategories.

[Question to Group]{.underline}: What percentage of the market is
insulated versus non-insulated?

-   95% or more of units available today are insulated. However, there
    are still a good number of non-insulated models being sold due to
    demand for these lower cost, less efficient units despite attempts
    by many manufacturers to educate purchasers about the energy savings
    of insulated models. At least one manufacturer said that they would
    be phasing out their line of non-insulated units over the next few
    years.

#### Section 4: Testing Requirements

#### [Question to EPA]{.underline}: Test procedures in this industry are changed frequently; how will EPA keep up with the most recent version? 

#### [EPA Response]{.underline}: Specifications are frequently, and easily, updated as new test procedures are released. To delete the version number of the test procedure completely could cause confusion as to which method manufacturers should use. EPA will just have to stay on top of things and looks to its partners to also inform them of any changes.

# There could be a testing burden on manufacturers since there are a number of different product numbers for the same unit. Could EPA consider accepting one test result for families of products as long as they fall within a certain range (watts)?

# The testing is very simple to conduct. Manufacturers could test the biggest and highest wattage units and then qualify the rest of the units of that same family. 

# 

#### Section 5: Effective Date

-   The North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers
    (NAFEM) Show, September 5-7, 2003 would be the best place to launch
    an ENERGY STAR specification for hot food holding cabinets.

-   Manufacturers asked that EPA finalize the specification by the end
    of July to give them enough time to prepare for the launch event.

# 

# Next Steps

-   All hot food holding cabinet manufacturers are encouraged to submit
    product for testing to determine the appropriate performance
    requirements of the various cabinet sizes.

-   All written comments on the Draft 1 specification should be
    submitted to Rachel Schmeltz or Rebecca Miller; contact information
    is provided below.

-   In the interest of process transparency, EPA will post all written
    comments on the ENERGY STAR Web site. Sensitive information included
    in comments should be indicated as such so that these comments will
    not be posted.

-   EPA plans to release another Draft version of the specification by
    the end of June.

**ENERGY STAR Contact Information:**

Rachel Schmeltz Rebecca Miller

ENERGY STAR Product Development ICF Consulting

\(202\) 564-9124 (202) 862-1266

<schmeltz.rachel@epa.gov> [rmiller@icfconsulting.com]{.underline}