December 12, 2013 

Dr. David Danielson 

Assistant Secretary 

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy 

U.S. Department of Energy 

1000 Independence Ave., SW 

Washington, DC 20585 

RE: Application for Interim Waiver pursuant to 10 C.F.R. § 431.401 for basic 

Summit models: 

• Keg Beer Coolers (Models SBC590, SBC5900S, and SBC635M) 

• Assisted Living Refrigerator-freezers (Models ALBF44, ALBF68) 

• Hotel Refrigerators (Models HTL2 and HTL3) 

Felix Storch, Inc. (FSI) through this Application for Interim Waiver will demonstrate likely success 

of the petition for waiver and address what economic hardship and/or competitive disadvantage is 

likely to result, absent a favorable determination on the Application for Interim Waiver. 

This application for interim waiver applies to the following models: 

• Keg Beer Coolers (Models SBC590, SBC5900S, and SBC635M) 

• Assisted Living Refrigerator-freezers (Models ALBF44, ALBF68) 

• Hotel Refrigerators (Models HTL2 and HTL3) 

Jointly, these models are referred to throughout as 'refrigerators'. Further information to support 

this application is contained in the Petition for Waiver filed simultaneously to this application. 

Confidential Business information: 

Felix Storch, Inc. is not asking for any part of this interim waiver request to be redacted. 

Likelihood of Success on the Merits 

FSI markets a wide range of refrigeration equipment for sale into specialty and niche markets. 

These refrigerators need to comply with energy efficiency standards issued and enforced by the 

Department of nergy (DOE). DOE relies on a single test pr cedure for all residential refrigerators 

and freezers. While the test procedure will change slightly on Sept. 15, 2014, the basic method of 

conducting the test will remain unchanged. • I can conclusively demonstrate that for the specific 

products in this waiver petition, both test procedures are "so unrepresentative of its true energy 

consumption characteristics . . . as to provide materially inaccurate comparative data." See 10 

CFR §430, subpart B, appendix Al, and 10 CFR §430, subpart B, appendix A. 

These test procedures will result in reported energy usage that is substantially higher than actual 

energy consumption and fail to represent real world operating conditions. As such, we believe that 
it is highly likely that we will succeed on the merits of the waiver petition. The products listed 

above meet DOE's intent in creating the waiver petition process and the criteria for establishing test 

procedures that enable DOE to evaluate products in a manner representative of true energy 

consumption and provide for accurate comparative data. FSI's approach to developing more 

representative test procedures is supported throughout the studies cited in the waiver petition and 

FSI in-situ testing. 

Need for an interim waiver 

The residential appliance business is a highly competitive business. Companies that specialize in 

niche products with low annual sales, cumulative and for any given product, inherently have higher 

unit costs for a number of reasons, including: 

• The cost of manufacturing the product is high, and there is less efficiency of scale; 

• The cost of marketing and distributing niche products is higher than mass market products; 

• Small companies have to divide fixed overhead by relatively low unit sales. 

This is exacerbated by the costs to register and comply with energy efficiency standards. When 

divided over only dozens or hundreds of units sold annually, testing costs can add 5% to 25% or 

more to a product's selling price, and could be the determinative factor between profit and loss. As 

a consequence, it is vitally important that energy testing be done in a manner that is representative 

of actual energy consumption and does not unduly drive up the costs to comply with standards that 

provide inaccurate test measurements. 

All of the products in this interim waiver application are compact refrigeration equipment. Compact 

refrigerators are primarily designed for situations where there are space limitations (either height or 

width or depth or a combination). As such, compact appliances do not have the options to decrease 

energy consumption by increasing the dimensions and adding additional insulating material. 

Compact appliances also have far more design limitations on the size and placement of components 

such as evaporators, condensers, compressors and fans because there are much smaller areas to 

work in. 

Failure to obtain an interim waiver in a timely manner will create severe economic hardship to FSI. 

Products in this waiver request will all serve markets that have fewer choices than mainstream 

markets, which all offer increased consumer choice. None of the subject products are the most 

common 'dormitory' or ofiice type compact l·efrigerators sold through mass market retailers. 1 

Some of the products in th.is waiver petition will serve markets where competitive products either 

use technology that uses much more energy (yet are not considered "covered" products by DOE), 

or force customers to use larger refrigerators than needed, which also may use more energy than 

needed. 

FSI is developing new products that will have many benefits and offer consumers more energy 

efficient choices, which will comply with DOE standard in accordance with appropriate test 

procedures. Yet, these products, when measured by the current and proposed DOE test procedures, 

will not reflect their true energy consumption. There are valid reasons why these specialty 

refrigerators will be used in a completely different manner than the "typical" residential refrigerator. 

When energy consumption is measured in a representative manner, all are energy efficient and will 

comply with applicable DOE standards. All will contribute to the value added manufacturing done 

1 It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of compact appliances sold today fall into the categories of 

dormitory type or office type refrigerator-freezers. Dorm and office refrigerators are not the subject of this petition. 
in our South Bronx facility. And all are intended to meet market demand in very small markets, and 

offer consumers a more suitable alternative to general purpose refrigerators. FSI has demonstrated 

that a single change to the test procedure will produce representative data, and allow FSI to market 

niche products that are the most suitable for some consumer applications. 

The new DOE residential standards that take effect Sept. 15, 2014 will force significant industry 

wide changes. Smaller companies such as FSI will be the most adversely impacted as many 

products that cannot meet the new standards will be withdrawn from the market. With many FSI 

products only selling a few hundred units annually or even fewer, the R&D and design changes 

needed to reduce energy consumption are cost prohibitive. Without a stream of new products to 

hold revenue steady, companies such as FSI will suffer severe revenue loss, employment loss and 

are threatened. 

The failure to issue this interim waiver will not only deprive FSI of the revenue and gross profit 

from this group of products, but it will weaken our competitive position in the marketplace. In the 

waiver application, FSI identifies about a dozen major players in the appliance marketplace we 

compete with, all of whom have over a billion dollars in annual revenue. All but two are foreign 

companies with large manufacturing operations. All, in varying degrees, compete with FSI. On 

common products, FSI is at a huge competitive disadvantage given all their economies of scale. FSI 

competes successfully because our niche products allow us to be more valuable to our resellers, and 

a certain amount of "common" products are sold alongside. Absent the niche products, our 

commodity products will suffer greatly as well. 

As a consequence of these circumstances, FSI would suffer serious economic hardship, and would 

be at a competitive disadvantage unless an interim waiver is granted for the products in this petition. 

Conclusion 

FSI initiated a petition for waiver for the list of specialty refrigerators that are designed to provide 

consumer choice in niche markets. These products differ substantially in their use from typical 

household or dormitory type refrigerators. The current test procedures measure energy use in a 

manner that is so unrepresentative of these products' true energy consumption that they provide 

materially inaccurate comparative data. FSI respectfully requests that you grant an interim waiver 

of the test procedures of 10 CFR §430, subpart B, appendix Al and the proposed 10 CFR §430, 

subpart B, appendix A to the procedure outlined in our waiver request, so that it may avoid severe 

economic hardship while DOE processes the petition. 

Resp/..2;%tted, 

Paul Storch 

Summit Appliance Div. Felix Storch, Inc. 

770 Garrison Ave. Bronx, NY 10474 USA 

PH. 718-893-3900 

FAX: 718-842-3093 

Email: paul@summitappliance.com