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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 167 / Wednesday, September 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules DOE is proposing to require testing of both the hottest Warm Wash/Cold Rinse setting and the coldest Warm Wash/
Cold Rinse setting for all clothes washers in the proposed new Appendix J instead of the 25/50/75 test. Water consumption, electrical energy consumption, and all other measured values 38 would be averaged between the two tested cycles to represent the Warm Wash/Cold Rinse cycle. DOE is proposing to make the same changes to the Warm Wash/Warm Rinse cycle in the proposed new Appendix J.
DOEs proposal would decrease the test burden under the proposed new Appendix J for clothes washers that offer more than two Warm Wash/Cold Rinse or Warm Wash/Warm Rinse temperature settings, which DOE
estimates represent around half of the market, by reducing the number of Warm Wash/Cold Rinse and Warm Wash/Warm Rinse tested cycles from three to two. Because this proposed approach may, however, change the measured energy use of clothes washers that offer more than two Warm Wash/
Cold Rinse or Warm Wash/Warm Rinse settings, the proposed edits would not apply to Appendix J2 and therefore would not affect the measured efficiency of existing clothes washers.
The ongoing RCW and CCW energy conservation standards rulemakings would consider the impact of any modifications to the measured efficiency using the proposed new Appendix J.
DOE tentatively concludes that the proposed approach in the proposed new Appendix J would maintain representativeness by continuing to capture the complete range of Warm Wash temperatures available for selection i.e., by relying on an average of the hottest Warm Wash/Cold Rinse setting and the coldest Warm Wash/
Cold Rinse setting. For models that are currently tested using the 25/50/75 test and for which certain Warm settings are located beyond the 75-percent position on the temperature selection dial and therefore not included for testing, DOEs proposal would capture entire range of available Warm Wash temperatures available to the consumer, and therefore would improve representativeness.
DOE acknowledges that NEEAs suggestion to characterize the Warm Wash/Cold Rinse temperature selections using a single test run on the wash temperature setting labeled Warm 38 As discussed in sections III.D.4.a and III.D.5 of this document, DOE is proposing to require measurements of RMC and cycle time for each tested cycle.

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would reduce test burden even further by requiring just a single test cycle.
However, DOE tentatively concludes that testing a single Warm Wash temperature on a clothes washer that offers multiple Warm Wash selections to the user may not provide as accurate a representation of consumer usage as DOEs proposal, which captures the full range of available Warm Wash temperatures. In addition, DOE is concerned that defining the tested temperature as the setting labeled Warm would create ambiguity for clothes washers that offer multiple Warm Wash temperatures but for which no setting is expressly labeled Warm.
For example, DOE is aware of clothes washers that use descriptors such as Colors, Brights, and Whites to describe the different wash temperature selections available to the user.
DOE requests comment on the proposal to require in the proposed new Appendix J testing only the hottest and the coldest Warm Wash/Cold Rinse settings. DOE seeks data and information on how this proposed change to the Warm Wash temperature settings required for testing would impact representativeness, testing costs, and manufacturer burden.
As noted, based on its market research, DOE estimates that roughly half of all clothes washer models on the U.S. market offer more than two Warm Wash/Cold Rinse temperature settings.
For these units, DOEs proposal to simplify the Warm Wash/Cold Rinse settings required for testing may impact measured efficiency. Therefore, in this NOPR, DOE is proposing to change the Warm Wash tested settings only in the proposed new Appendix J and not in the existing Appendix J2. The ongoing RCW and CCW energy conservation standards rulemakings would consider the impact of these modifications to the Warm Wash/Cold Rinse tested cycles on measured efficiency.
4. Remaining Moisture Content Section 3.8.4 of Appendix J2 requires that for clothes washers that have multiple spin settings 39 available within the energy test cycle that result in different RMC values, the maximum and minimum extremes of the available spin settings must be tested with the maximum load size on the Cold/Cold temperature selection.40 The final RMC
39 The term spin settings refers to spin times or spin speeds. The maximum spin setting results in a lower better RMC.
40 On clothes washers that provide a Warm Rinse option, RMC must be measured on both Cold Rinse and Warm Rinse, with the final RMC calculated as a weighted average using TUFs of 73 percent for Cold Rinse and 27 percent for Warm Rinse. DOE

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is the weighted average of the maximum and minimum spin settings, with the maximum spin setting weighted at 75
percent and the minimum spin setting weighted at 25 percent. The RMC
measurement is used to calculate the drying energy component of IMEF. On most clothes washers, the drying energy component represents the largest portion of energy captured in the MEF
and IMEF metric.
DOE is aware of clothes washers on the market that offer multiple spin settings, but which offer only the maximum spin setting on the Cold/Cold temperature selection. 85 FR 31065, 31073. This results in the lower spin setting not being factored into the RMC
calculation, despite being available at other temperature selections in the energy test cycle. As defined in the Temperature Use Factor TUF 41
Table 4.1.1 in Appendix J2, the Cold/
Cold temperature selection represents 37 percent of consumer temperature selections, whereas the other available temperature selections, for which the lower spin settings would be available on such a unit, represent a combined 63
percent of consumer temperature selections. Id. DOE has tentatively concluded that the existing RMC
measurement procedure may not provide representative test results on certain clothes washer models.
a. Revised Calculation In the May 2020 RFI, DOE requested comment on testing clothes washers that offer only the maximum spin setting on the Cold/Cold temperature selection but provide lower spin settings on other temperature selections. Id. DOE
suggested that, RMC could be measured at the default spin setting for each temperature selection and averaged using the TUFs. Id.
AHAM stated that it is not necessary to address clothes washers with spin settings that are only available on certain temperature selections because the current method of RMC calculation is representative of an average use cycle.
AHAM, No. 5 at p. 13
Samsung commented that clothes washers with spin settings that are available only on certain temperature selections make the current test procedure unrepresentative of real world use, since customers can select an has observed very few clothes washer models on the market that offer Warm Rinse. For simplicity throughout this discussion, DOE references the testing requirements for clothes washers that offer Cold Rinse only.
41 As described in more detail in section III.G.4
of this document, TUFs are weighting factors that represent the percentage of time that consumers choose a particular wash/rinse temperature selection for the wash cycle.

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