The participation of water agencies in CEE’s Commercial Kitchens Initiative is proving to be quite valuable.

“Many of the equipment items addressed by the initiative have a water component,” said CEE Program Manager Afroz Khan, who is managing the initiative. “The water agencies have been giving us important feedback, both from a technical standpoint and a marketing perspective.”

Among the 25 initiative participants are six water agencies: City of Austin, Denver Water, City of Toronto, Seattle Public Utilities and Southern Nevada Water Authority, New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection and San Diego County Water Authority.

In addition to providing feedback, several of the water agencies are working directly with electric and gas utilities in their areas to promote high-efficiency commercial kitchen equipment. For example, City of Austin Water Conservation is partnering with Austin Energy to provide up to $40,000 to customers for installing new equipment and processes that conserve water at existing facilities.

Similarly, Seattle Public Utilities is collaborating with Puget Sound Energy and San Diego Water Authority is working with San Diego Gas & Electric to co-promote commercial kitchen programs.

The Commercial Kitchens Initiative currently provides high-efficiency specifications for steam cookers and ice-cube makers as well as guidelines for pre-rinse spray valves (the initiative also covers gas fryers, hot food holding cabinets, refrigerators and freezers). In addition, the committee is providing feedback for two ENERGY STAR^® draft specifications that are water intensive, ice-makers and dishwashers.

The Commercial Kitchens Committee is hoping that ENERGY STAR will adopt CEE’s Tier 2 specification for ice-makers; CEE’s Tier 1 will be retired in 2008 since it represents the federal minimum standard set to become effective in 2010.

With highly useful input from water agencies, CEE is helping ENERGY STAR revise its commercial dishwasher specification. The first draft specification was based solely on the volume of rinse water but the Commercial Kitchens Committee recommended that idle energy (energy consumed while the unit is not washing dishes) should also be taken into account.

ENERGY STAR responded by asking manufacturers to report idle energy data and incorporate an idle energy threshold requirement into the latest draft specification. The committee’s comments on the second draft specification are favorable.

CEE is also looking at four other potential additions to the initiative, one of which involves water usage. The new candidates are combination ovens (which include a steamer), griddles, large vat fryers and convection ovens. PG&E’s Food Service Technology Center has developed specifications for these items and the committee is currently researching this work to better assess the technology.

[ back to top ]