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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 167 / Wednesday, September 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules measurement methods, representative usage and efficiency factors, and metric definitions. 85 FR 31065, 3106731082
May 22, 2020. In response to stakeholder requests, DOE re-opened the comment period for the May 2020 RFI.
85 FR 38106 June 25, 2020.
On December 16, 2020, DOE
established separate product classes for top-loading RCWs with a cycle time of
less than 30 minutes and for frontloading RCWs with a cycle time of less than 45 minutes. 85 FR 81359
December 2020 Final Rule. DOE is re-evaluating the new short-cycle product classes in response to Executive Order 13900, Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.
86 FR 7037 Jan. 25, 2021. In addition,
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stakeholders and interested parties filed multiple lawsuits challenging the December 2020 Final Rule, and DOE has received several petitions for reconsideration of the December 2020
Final Rule.
DOE received comments in response to the May 2020 RFI from the interested parties listed in Table I.1.

TABLE I.1WRITTEN COMMENTS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO MAY 2020 RFI
Commenters
Reference in this NOPR

Appliance Standards Awareness Project, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Consumer Federation of America, National Consumer Law Center, Natural Resources Defense Council.
Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers
Electrolux Home Products
GE Appliances
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric Company.
Samsung Electronics America
Underwriters Laboratories
Whirlpool Corporation

Joint Commenters

Efficiency Organizations.

AHAM
Electrolux
GEA
NEEA
California Investor-Owned Utilities CA IOUs.
Samsung
UL
Whirlpool

Trade Association.
Manufacturer.
Manufacturer.
Efficiency Organization.
Utilities.

A parenthetical reference at the end of a comment quotation or paraphrase provides the location of the item in the public record.10

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II. Synopsis of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking In this NOPR, DOE proposes to update Appendix J2 as follows:
1 Further specify supply water temperature test conditions and water meter resolution requirements;
2 Add specifications for measuring wash water temperature using submersible data loggers;
3 Expand the load size table to accommodate clothes container capacities up to 8.0 cubic feet ft3;
4 Define user-adjustable automatic water fill control;
5 Specify the applicability of the wash time setting for clothes washers with a range of wash time settings;
6 Specify how the energy test cycle flow charts apply to clothes washers that internally generate hot water;
7 Specify that the energy test cycle flow charts are to be evaluated using the Maximum load size;
8 Specify that testing is to be conducted with any network settings disabled if instructions are available to the user to disable these functions;
10 The parenthetical reference provides a reference for information located in the docket of DOEs rulemaking to develop test procedures for clothes washers. Docket No. EERE2016BTTP
0011, which is maintained at www.regulations.gov/
docket/EERE-2016-BT-TP-0011. The references are arranged as follows: Commenter name, comment docket ID number, page of that document.

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9 Further specify the conditions under which data from a test cycle would be discarded;
10 Add product-specific enforcement provisions to accommodate the potential for test cloth lot-to-lot variation in remaining moisture content RMC;
11 Delete obsolete definitions, metrics, and the clothes washer-specific waiver section; and 12 Move additional test cloth related specifications to Appendix J3.
In this NOPR, DOE is also proposing to update 10 CFR part 430, subpart B, appendix J3, Uniform Test Method for Measuring the Moisture Absorption and Retention Characteristics, as follows:
1 Consolidate all test cloth-related provisions, including those proposed to be moved from Appendix J2;
2 Reorganize sections for improved readability; and 3 Codify the test cloth material verification procedure as used by industry.
In this NOPR, DOE is also proposing to create a new appendix J to 10 CFR
part 430, subpart B, Uniform Test Method for Measuring the Energy Consumption of Automatic and SemiAutomatic Clothes Washers, which would be used for the evaluation and issuance of any updated efficiency standards, as well as to determine compliance with the updated standards, should DOE determine that amended standards are warranted based on the
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Commenter type
Manufacturer.
Third-Party Test Laboratory.
Manufacturer.

criteria established by EPCA.11 The proposed new Appendix J would include the following additional provisions beyond those proposed as amendments to Appendix J2:
1 Modify the hot water supply target temperature and clothes washer preconditioning requirements;
2 Modify the Extra-Hot Wash threshold temperature;
3 Add measurement and calculation of average cycle time;
4 Reduce the number of required test cycles by requiring the use of no more than two Warm Wash/Cold Rinse cycles, and no more than two Warm Wash/Warm Rinse cycles;
5 Reduce the number of required test cycles by removing the need for one or more cycles used for measuring RMC;
6 Reduce the number of load sizes from three to two for units with automatic water fill controls;
7 Modify the load size definitions consistent with two, rather than three, load sizes;
8 Update the water fill levels to be used for testing to reflect the modified load size definitions;
9 Specify the installation of singleinlet clothes washers, and simplify the test procedure for semi-automatic clothes washers;
10 Define new performance metrics that are functions of the weightedaverage load size rather than clothes 11 Information regarding the ongoing RCW and CCW energy conservation standards rulemakings can be found at docket numbers EERE2017BT
STD0014 and EERE2019BTSTD0044, respectively.

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