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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 167 / Wednesday, September 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules
i.e., Hot/Hot, Warm/Warm, and Cold/
Cold. In Table 6.1 of Appendix J1977, temperature settings that do not require a water temperature change had higher usage factors than temperatures settings that do require a water temperature change, reflecting that consumers are more likely to use a single temperature for the entire duration of the cycle than to change the temperature between the wash and rinse portions of the cycle.
In implementing specific provisions for testing semi-automatic clothes washers in the proposed new Appendix J, DOE is proposing to require testing only those temperature settings that do not require a water temperature change i.e., Hot/Hot, Warm/Warm, and Cold/
Cold. As indicated, by the TUFs from Appendix J1977 and Appendix J1997, consumers are more likely to use a single temperature for the entire duration of the cycle than to change the temperature between the wash and rinse portions of the cycle. Changing the temperature between the wash and rinse portions of the cycle would require the consumer to monitor the operation of the clothes washer and adjust the temperature at the appropriate time. It is expected that consumers are more likely not to interact with the operation of the clothes washer during operation of the unit, once it has been started. Not requiring testing of temperature combinations that would require the user to change the temperature between wash and rinse would reduce test burden significantly, while producing results that are representative of consumer usage. DOE tentatively concludes that requiring testing all six possible temperature combinations would present undue burden compared to testing only those temperature combinations that do not require a water temperature change.
DOE requests comment on its proposal for testing semi-automatic clothes washers in the proposed new Appendix J that would require testing only the wash/rinse temperature combinations that do not require a wash temperature change between the wash and rinse portions of the cycle i.e., Hot/
Hot, Warm/Warm, and Cold/Cold.
To define the TUFs for these three temperature combinations, DOE
proposes to use the TUFs from the existing column of Table 4.1.1 of Appendix J2 specified for testing clothes washers with Hot/Cold, Warm/Cold, and Cold/Cold temperature selections, and presented in Table III.3. To further simplify the test procedure, since DOE
is proposing to require testing only those temperature selections that do not require a change in the water temperature, DOE is proposing to label
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these selections Hot, Warm, and Cold, respectively as opposed to Hot/Hot, Warm/Warm, and Cold/
Cold.

TABLE III.3POTENTIAL TEMPERATURE
USAGE FACTORS FOR SEMI-AUTOMATIC CLOTHES WASHERS REFLECTING THREE REQUIRED TEMPERATURE
COMBINATIONS
Temperature selection
Potential TUF
values
Hot
Warm
Cold

0.14
0.49
0.37

DOE requests feedback on its proposal to test semi-automatic clothes washers using TUF values of 0.14 for Hot, 0.49
for Warm, and 0.37 for Cold.
DOE further requests comment on whether the temperature selections and TUFs that DOE has proposed for semiautomatic clothes washers would be representative of consumer use; and if not, which temperature selections and TUF values would better reflect consumer use.
DOE recognizes that these proposed specifications for testing semi-automatic clothes washers may differ from how manufacturers are currently testing semi-automatic clothes washers under Appendix J2 which, as described, does not provide explicit instructions for semi-automatic clothes washers.
Therefore, DOE is proposing to include these provisions only in the proposed new Appendix J, which would be used for the evaluation and issuance of updated efficiency standards, and would not be required until the compliance date of any updated standards. However, DOE could consider replicating these changes in Appendix J2 as well, to provide greater clarity on how to test semi-automatic clothes washers using Appendix J2.
DOE requests comment on whether to include explicit instructions for how to test semi-automatic clothes washers in Appendix J2, and if so, whether DOE
should implement the same procedures being proposed for the proposed new Appendix J.
DOE requests feedback on how manufacturers of semi-automatic clothes washers are currently testing their products using Appendix J2.
b. Cycles Required for Test Inherent to semi-automatic clothes washer operation is that the clothes washer provides the same cycle operation for a given load size and cycle setting, regardless of the water temperature that the user provides. As
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a result, when testing a semi-automatic clothes washer, machine energy consumption, total water consumption, bone-dry weight, cycle-completion weight, and cycle time for a given load size are unaffected by wash/rinse temperature. When testing a given load size, only the relative amount of cold and hot water consumption is based on the water temperature provided by the user. For the Cold cycle as proposed, all of the water used is cold; for the Hot cycle as proposed, all of the water used is hot; and for the Warm cycle as proposed, half of the water used is cold and half is hot.48 Based on these relationships, for a given load size, once one of the test cycles has been performed and the total water consumption determined, the relative amounts of cold and hot water for the other required cycles can be determined formulaically rather than needing to be determined through testing. Therefore, DOE has tentatively determined that testing all three of the proposed temperature selections would be unnecessary, and that only a single test cycle is required for a given load size.
DOE is proposing in the proposed new Appendix J to require testing only the Cold cycle, and to determine the representative values for the Hot and Warm cycles formulaically based on the values measured for the Cold cycle. This approach would reduce the test burden for semi-automatic clothes washers by requiring only two test cycles be conducted using the small and large test loads with the Cold cycle as opposed to six cycles using the small and large test loads with the Cold, Warm, and Hot cycles and obtaining the other required values through calculation.
DOE requests comment on its proposal to require semi-automatic clothes washers to test only the Cold cycle, and to determine the representative values for the Warm and Hot cycles formulaically, for the proposed new Appendix J.
DOE notes that if it were to require measuring all six temperature options listed in Table III.2 of this document Hot/Hot, Hot/Warm, Hot/Cold, Warm/
Warm, Warm/Cold, and Cold/Cold, the determination of hot and cold water use would be more complicated for temperature selections that require a 48 These water use determinations are based on the water faucet positions specified in section 3.2.3.2 of Appendix J2, which as described previously, specifies that to obtain a hot inlet water temperature, open the hot water faucet completely and close the cold water faucet; for a warm inlet water temperature, open both hot and cold water faucets completely; and for a cold inlet water temperature, close the hot water faucet and open the cold water faucet completely.

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