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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 167 / Wednesday, September 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules since connected clothes washers are becoming more prevalent and sales of connected RCWs have been increasing.
NEEA also commented that Wi-Fienabled appliances tend to experience a wide variation of energy use, depending on the circuit design and silicon used, so it will be important to measure individual clothes washer energy use in this context. NEEA, No. 12 at pp. 20
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AHAM commented that there is not yet adequate consumer use data on connected features to justify amending the test procedure. AHAM, No. 5 at p.
5 AHAM stated that consumer use and understanding of new technologies continues to evolve and inform manufacturers designs. According to AHAM, some consumers do not even connect their network-enabled appliances to use the available features.
Id. AHAM stated that DOE should ensure that the clothes washer test procedure does not prematurely address new designs which may not yet have an average use or be in common use, and that doing so could stifle innovation. Id.
DOE recognizes the potential benefits that could be provided by connected capability, such as providing energy saving benefits to consumers, enabling peak load shifting on the electrical grid, and other consumer-related benefits.
While a number of connected clothes washers are currently on the market with varying implementations of connected features, DOE is not aware of any data available, nor did interested parties provide any such data, regarding the consumer use of connected features.
Therefore, DOE is unable to establish a representative test configuration for assessing the energy consumption of connected functionality for clothes washers.
As noted previously, while DOEs current test procedure does not specifically consider energy use of network features, the test procedure may result in the measurement of the energy use of connected features in inactive mode. Specifically, as discussed, any energy use of connected features would be measured in section 3.9 of Appendix J2 for measuring combined low-power mode power if the connected features are enabled in the as-shipped configuration. If the consumer is required to actively enable the connected functionality, however, such energy consumption would not be measured. Similarly, any incremental energy consumption in active mode, or any other modes of operation impacted by the products connected features, would not be measured because the test cycle requirements in section 3.2.7 of Appendix J2 do not include instructions
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for activating any such features before performing the active mode test cycles.
Given the lack of data to establish a test configuration that would be representative of consumer use of connected features on clothes washers, DOE is proposing to amend section 3.2.7
of Appendix J2 and section 3.2.4 of the proposed new Appendix J to specify that network settings on clothes washers with network capabilities must be disabled during testing if such settings can be disabled by the end-user, and the products user manual provides instructions on how to do so.
If, however, connected functionality cannot be disabled by the end-user or the products user manual does not provide instruction for disabling connected functionality that is enabled by default, then the unit must be tested with the network capability in the factory default setting as specified in the current test procedure. DOE has preliminarily determined that if connected functionality cannot be disabled, or the products user manual does not provide instruction for disabling the function, it is more representative to include the energy consumption of the clothes washer in the default condition, including the enabled connected function, than to exclude the energy consumption associated with the connected feature.
As such, the energy consumption of a connected function that cannot be disabled would continue to be measured, as in the current test procedure. DOE notes that this approach is consistent with the approach proposed in the test procedure supplemental NOPR for microwave ovens published on August 3, 2021. 86
FR 41759.
DOE requests comment on its proposed amendment to Appendix J2
and the proposed new Appendix J to specify that network settings on clothes washers with network capabilities must be disabled during testing if such settings can be disabled by the end-user, and the products user manual provides instructions on how to do so.
DOE seeks the following information regarding connected clothes washers, which could inform future test procedure considerations:
DOE requests feedback on its characterization of connected clothes washers currently on the market.
Specifically, DOE requests input on the types of features or functionality enabled by connected clothes washers that exist on the market or that are under development.
DOE requests data on the percentage of users purchasing connected clothes washers, and, for those users, the
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percentage of the time when the connected functionality of the clothes washer is used.
DOE requests data on the amount of additional or reduced energy use of connected clothes washers.
DOE requests data on the pattern of additional or reduced energy use of connected clothes washers; for example, whether it is constant, periodic, or triggered by the user.
DOE requests information on any existing testing protocols that account for connected features of clothes washers, as well as any testing protocols that may be under development within the industry.
E. Metrics 1. Replacing Capacity With WeightedAverage Load Size As discussed, the current energy efficiency standards for RCWs are based on the IMEF metric, measured in ft3/
kWh/cycle, as calculated in section 4.6
of Appendix J2. IMEF is calculated as the capacity of the clothes container in ft3 divided by the total clothes washer energy consumption in kWh per cycle.
The total clothes washer energy consumption per cycle is the sum of: a The machine electrical energy consumption; b the hot water energy consumption; c the energy required for removal of the remaining moisture in the wash load; and d the combined low-power mode energy consumption.
The current energy efficiency standards for CCWs are based on the MEFJ2 metric, measured in ft3/kWh/
cycle, as determined in section 4.5 of Appendix J2. The MEFJ2 metric differs from the IMEF metric by not including the combined low-power mode energy consumption in the total clothes washer energy consumption per cycle.
The current water efficiency standards for both RCWs and CCWs are based on the IWF metric, measured in gal/cycle/ft3, as calculated in section 4.2.13 of Appendix J2. IWF is calculated as the total weighted per-cycle water consumption in gallons for all wash cycles divided by the capacity of the clothes container in ft3.
In the May 2020 RFI, DOE requested feedback on whether to consider changing the energy or water efficiency metrics for RCWs or CCWs to maintain consistency with any changes to the capacity metric or for other reasons. 85
FR 31065, 31080. DOE included several examples such as incorporating the weighted-average weight of test cloth test load, which would result in energy efficiency metric expressed in terms of pounds of clothing per kWh per cycle.
Id.

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