Automatic Commercial Ice Maker Energy Conservation Standard

Question Items from the Framework Document Included in Today’s Discussion

12/16/2010

Included in 

Public Mtg. 

Slides 

12/16/10

Framework Document

Questions

11/04/2010

Item 1-1 

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Item 3-2 

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Item 3-4 

Item 1-1 While DOE invites comment on all aspects of the material presented in this 

document, several specific issues on which DOE seeks comment are set out 

in comment boxes like this one. DOE uses these comment boxes to highlight 

issues and ask specific questions on the approaches DOE plans to follow to 

conduct the analyses required for the energy conservation standards 

rulemaking. Such requests for feedback are numbered sequentially 

throughout the document and are repeated in Appendix A. ........................ 1 

Item 1-2 DOE requests comment regarding the development of updated test 

procedures for the automatic commercial ice-making equipment covered 

under this rulemaking. ................................................................................... 8 

Item 1-3 DOE requests comment on the possibility of applying the AHRI 810-2007 test 

procedure to larger capacity equipment and tube type ice-makers. If the 

AHRI 810-2007 test procedure cannot be applied to larger capacity and tube 

type ice-makers, what test procedure should be applied?............................ 8

Item 1-4 DOE seeks comment on the categories of automatic commercial ice-making 

equipment. ................................................................................................... 10

Item 1-5 DOE seeks information concerning any entities that should be added to the 

interested parties list, in particular additional manufacturers, small business 

manufacturers, consumers, and energy conservation and environmental 

advocates...................................................................................................... 12

Item 3-1 DOE seeks information on annual shipments into the U.S. market from 1995 

to 2010 (both domestic and imports) by equipment class, and the 

corresponding shipment-weighted average efficiency of these shipments.14

Item 3-2 DOE seeks information on the proportion(s) of equipment shipped annually 

that replaces existing equipment................................................................. 14

Item 3-3 DOE requests feedback on amending the current standard for cube 

machines....................................................................................................... 17

Item 3-4 DOE requests feedback on extending the standard to include flake, nugget, 

and tube machines. ...................................................................................... 17
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Item 3-6 

Item 3-7 

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Item 3-9 

Item 3-10

Item 3-11

Item 3-12

Item 3-13

Item 3-14

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Item 3-17

Item 4-1

Item 3-5 DOE requests feedback on the exclusion of block ice-makers in the standard 

at this time. DOE particularly seeks information on the potential for 

domestic use of automatic commercial block ice-makers........................... 17

Item 3-6 DOE requests feedback on tube type machines. DOE understands the 

machines have tube-shaped evaporators and/or make tube-shaped ice and 

that these machines operate cyclically like cube machines, but they do not 

produce clear ice. DOE requests comment on whether separate product 

classes should be established for such products. If yes, what are the 

appropriate capacity ranges for these classes? If not, with which of the 

proposed product classes should the tube machines be grouped? ............ 17

Item 3-7 DOE requests feedback concerning the proposed harvest rate breakdowns, 

and if they accurately reflect the current market........................................ 17

Item 3-8 DOE requests feedback on the proposed equipment classes for the 

automatic commercial ice-making equipment covered under this 

rulemaking, and the criteria used in creating the classes............................ 17

Item 3-9 DOE requests comment on including ice-makers with capacities greater than 

4,000 pounds per day in this rulemaking. If DOE should include standards for 

ice-makers with capacities larger than 4,000 pounds per day, what should 

the range of capacities be in this rulemaking?............................................. 17

Item 3-10 What technologies or designs, if any, should be added to or removed from 

the above list? If certain changes to the list are not applicable to all 

equipment classes, what equipment classes are affected?......................... 18

Item 3-11 DOE requests feedback on potable water use as a metric. ......................... 19

Item 3-12 DOE requests comment on the relationship between potable water use and 

energy efficiency. Specifically, to what degree is potable 

water efficiency likely to increase with increased stringency 

of energy efficiency requirements for the ice-makers covered under this 

rulemaking without explicit potable water efficiency requirements?......... 22

Item 3-13 DOE seeks feedback on including total water use in the technological 

assessment. .................................................................................................. 22

Item 3-14 DOE seeks input on what technologies or designs should be considered to 

improve water efficiencies. .......................................................................... 22

Item 3-15 DOE welcomes comment on standby and off mode energy consumption as it 

relates to automatic commercial ice-making equipment............................ 24

Item 3-16 DOE seeks information that would confirm or deny the presence of 

secondary cooling in automatic commercial ice-maker applications.......... 24

Item 3-17 DOE seeks feedback on the proposed baselines.......................................... 26

Item 4-1 DOE welcomes comments on the above four screening criteria................. 26
Item 5-1 

Item 5-2 

Item 5-3 

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Item 5-4A 

Item 5-5 

Item 5-6 

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Item 5-8 

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Item 5-1 DOE seeks comments from stakeholders providing insights regarding such 

trade-offs...................................................................................................... 27

Item 5-2 DOE requests comments on the best ways to collect such information from 

the industry. DOE anticipates that such data might be collected and 

aggregated by AHRI for submittal to DOE.................................................... 27

Item 5-3 DOE requests input on appropriate categories and questions to be included 

on such requests for data............................................................................. 27

Item 5-4 DOE seeks comment on simplifying assumptions that may be made to 

reduce the potential complexity of maximizing benefits associated with both 

water and energy use reductions................................................................. 27

Item 5-4A DOE seeks comments and recommendations regarding the potential data 

collection efforts that might be made by industry participants to support this 

rulemaking, and the possible structure of data request forms that could be 

used to assist such efforts. ........................................................................... 28

Item 5-5 DOE is also interested in receiving equipment test data (test procedure 

used, rating conditions, harvest rate, voltage, integrated average product 

temperature, daily energy consumption, etc.). Test data representative of 

the baseline model in each equipment class is particularly important. ...... 28

Item 5-6 DOE requests feedback on the use of a combined analysis approach that 

uses multiple information sources to determine the relationship between 

manufacturer selling price and energy consumption for automatic 

commercial ice-makers. ............................................................................... 29

Item 5-7 DOE seeks comment on which information sources may be the best for 

developing estimates of manufacturer selling prices. ................................. 29

Item 5-8 Are there proprietary designs that DOE should consider in the analyses for 

any of the equipment under consideration by this rulemaking? If so, how 

should DOE acquire the cost data necessary for evaluating these designs? 

Conversely, are there proprietary designs that should not be considered? 

Which products use these designs? ............................................................. 29

Item 5-9 DOE requests feedback on the suggested representative sizes for cube ice 

machines. Should multiple sizes be considered for any of the product 

classes? ......................................................................................................... 30

Item 5-10 Can any of the product groups (i.e., combination of equipment type and 

condenser cooling type) be represented by consideration of fewer 

representative products than the group’s number of product classes? ..... 30

Item 5-11 Can flake and nugget machines be represented by fewer representative 

products than cube machines? .................................................................... 30
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Item 6-1 

Item 6-2 

Item 7-1 

Item 7-2 

Item 7-3 

Item 7-4 

Item 7-5 

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Item 8-3 

Item 8-4 

Item 8-5 

Item 5-12 DOE welcomes comments on which product classes could be selected for 

focused analysis, and for which product classes the analyses could be 

extrapolated. ................................................................................................ 31

Item 5-13 Are there outside regulatory issues that DOE should consider in its 

engineering analysis of commercial automatic ice-makers? ....................... 31

Item 6-1 DOE seeks data or data sources that could be used to characterize the 

energy use of automatic commercial ice-making equipment. .................... 31

Item 6-2 DOE seeks feedback on the assumption that commercial ice-making machine 

operation has a negligible impact on the building space-conditioning loads.

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Item 7-1 DOE requests information on the proposed distribution channels for the 

commercial ice-making equipment covered under this rulemaking. .......... 33

Item 7-2 DOE requests information on whether the distribution channels differ by the 

types of buildings that comprise the market for automatic commercial icemakers, namely, food sales establishments, food service establishments, 

health care facilities, lodging facilities, and others...................................... 33

Item 7-3 DOE requests feedback on its proposal to use incremental distribution 

channel markups for the LCC analysis.......................................................... 33

Item 7-4 DOE seeks comment on sources of food service equipment distribution 

chain data that could be used to characterize markups for the food service 

equipment industry...................................................................................... 33

Item 7-5 DOE seeks comment on appropriate transportation and shipping costs to 

include in the analysis and whether those costs are likely to vary for higher 

efficiency equipment.................................................................................... 34

Item 8-1 DOE seeks comment on the proposed approaches for estimating current and 

forecasted energy prices. ............................................................................. 36

Item 8-2 DOE seeks comment on the proposed approaches for estimating discount 

rates for consumers of the equipment covered under this rulemaking...... 36

Item 8-3 DOE seeks answers to the question: What are the typical installation, 

maintenance, and repair costs and practices during the life cycle of an 

originally manufactured automatic commercial ice-making machine?....... 37

Item 8-4 What is a typical time period between the sale of a new product and the 

first maintenance or repairs? What are the typical cycles of maintenance 

and repairs?.................................................................................................. 37

Item 8-5 DOE seeks feedback on whether and how routine maintenance, repair, and 

installation costs will change for products that are more energy and water 

efficient......................................................................................................... 37
Item 8-6 

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Item 8-8 

Item 9-1 

Item 9-2 

Item 9-3 

Item 10-1 

Item 10-2 

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Item 12-1 

Item 12-2 

Item 13-1 

Item 8-6 If it is not appropriate to assume that changes in maintenance, repair, or 

installation costs would be negligible for more-efficient products, DOE seeks 

feedback on appropriate methodologies for assessing changes to each of 

these costs.................................................................................................... 37

Item 8-7 DOE seeks comment on appropriate equipment lifetimes for the classes of 

equipment covered in this rulemaking. ....................................................... 37

Item 8-8 DOE seeks input on the proposed methodology for developing estimates of 

national water costs and potential savings associated with the proposed 

rule................................................................................................................ 38

Item 9-1 DOE seeks information on historical shipments of automatic commercial icemaking equipment for each equipment class covered under this rulemaking, 

as well as industry-trend data regarding relative growth in each equipment 

class. ............................................................................................................. 39

Item 9-2 DOE seeks information on representative saturation rates for each 

equipment class covered under this rulemaking, as well as industry-trend 

data regarding relative growth in each equipment class............................. 39

Item 9-3 DOE requests input from manufacturers on the potential impact of new 

energy conservation standards on equipment shipments. Other interested 

parties are also welcome to provide input. DOE also requests input on any 

market-pull programs that currently exist to promote the adoption of moreefficient equipment...................................................................................... 40

Item 10-1 DOE requests information on whether a rebound effect exists and should be 

incorporated in the NIA................................................................................ 41

Item 10-2 DOE welcomes comments from interested parties on the use of NIA 

spreadsheet models for estimating national impacts of amended energy and 

water conservation standards for automatic commercial ice-making 

equipment. ................................................................................................... 42

Item 11-1 DOE seeks input as to which customer subgroups DOE should consider in the 

present rulemaking. Examples of possible subgroups DOE could consider 

appropriate for automatic commercial ice-making equipment include small 

independent grocery and convenience stores and independently owned 

restaurant and motels.................................................................................. 43

Item 12-1 DOE seeks comment on the establishment of manufacturer subgroups for 

automatic commercial ice-making equipment, particularly small businesses 

and niche manufacturers. ............................................................................ 45

Item 12-2 What regulations or pending regulations should DOE consider in the analysis 

of cumulative regulatory burden?................................................................ 46

Item 13-1 DOE seeks input from interested parties on its proposed use of NEMS-BT to 

conduct the utility impact analysis............................................................... 46
Item 14-1 

Item 15-1 

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Item 14-1 DOE requests feedback on this approach to assessing employment

impacts. ........................................................................................................ 47

Item 15-1 DOE seeks input on its plans to use NEMS-BT to conduct the environmental 

impact analysis on the equipment covered by this rulemaking. DOE is 

particularly interested in whether there are any other approaches to the 

environmental assessment that it should consider and the advantages and 

disadvantages for each approach................................................................. 49

Item 16-1 DOE invites comments on its approach to monetization of emissions. ...... 50

Item 17-1 DOE seeks comment regarding programs that should be examined as

optional, non-regulatory approaches..................................................................................