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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 167 / Wednesday, September 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules
reasonably well with TUFs from Table 4.1.1 of Appendix J2. CA IOUs, No. 8
at p. 78 As summarized by CA IOUs, the 2016 PG&E survey indicated the following selection frequencies of each wash temperature setting: Cold 45
percent, Warm 46 percent, Hot 7
percent, and Sanitize 1 percent. Id.
For the rinse temperature setting, 21
percent of cycles used warm rinse, 51
percent used cold rinse, and 28 percent reported no separate rinse temperature.
Id.
The CA IOUs supported measuring energy and water use of all relevant cycle selections in Table 4.1.1 of Appendix J2, including those with lower TUFs, in order to fully capture energy use in a representative average use cycle or period of use, as required by EPCA. CA IOUs, No. 8 at p. 7
As previously mentioned in section III.A of this document, AHAM
commented that, in the worst-case scenario of a product with every feature one that includes manual and useradjustable automatic WFCS, a heater, four warm wash temperatures, warm rinse, and selectable spin speeds, over half of the test cycles have 1 percent or less overall contribution to the total energy efficiency. AHAM, No. 5 at p. 4
AHAM emphasized that temperature use factors play a role in the overall burden of the test procedure. Id.
DOE appreciates the CA IOUs data regarding consumer usage of different wash temperatures. As noted previously, the results from the 2016
PG&E survey are instructive as a point of comparison, but limited in geographic and seasonal representation, and represent only a small number of wash cycles per participating household. DOE is not aware of any nationally representative consumer usage data that demonstrate a change in temperature setting usage; therefore, DOE is not proposing any changes to the TUF values at this time.
In response to AHAMs comment regarding the test burden caused by TUFs that represent a relatively smaller percentage of consumer usage, DOE is proposing to implement several other changes to the proposed new Appendix J that would reduce test burden while maintaining representativeness. In particular, DOE is proposing to reduce the number of Warm Wash tested settings, as discussed in section III.D.3
of this document; to reduce the number of tested load sizes, as further discussed in section III.D.1.b of this document;
and to measure RMC on the energy test cycle rather than requiring separate additional cycles for measuring RMC, as further discussed in section III.D.4 of this document. Nonetheless, testing the
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full range of wash temperatures available to consumers on the Normal cycle is necessary to fully capture the energy and water use of a representative use cycle/period of use of a clothes washer.
DOE requests comment on maintaining the current TUF values.
5. Load Usage Factors As described previously, LUFs are weighting factors that represent the percentage of wash cycles that consumers run with a given load size.
Table 4.1.3 of Appendix J2 provides two sets of LUFs based on whether the clothes washer has a manual WFCS or automatic WFCS.
For a clothes washer with a manual WFCS, the two LUFs represent the percentage of wash cycles for which consumers choose the maximum water fill level and minimum water fill level in conjunction with the maximum and minimum load sizes, respectively. For a clothes washer with an automatic WFCS, the three LUFs represent the percentage of cycles for which the consumer washes a minimum-size, average-size, and maximum-size load for which the clothes washer determines the water fill level. As discussed in section III.D.1.b of this document, the values of these LUFs are intended to approximate a normal distribution that is slightly skewed towards the minimum load size.
In the May 2020 RFI, DOE requested data on current consumer usage as related to the LUFs and whether any updates to the LUFs in Table 4.1.3 of Appendix J2 are warranted to reflect current consumer usage patterns. 85 FR
31065, 31077. DOE specifically requested comment on whether the use of certain LUFs in the test procedure is consistent with the EPCA requirement that the test procedure be reasonably designed to measure energy and water use during a representative average use cycle or period of use without being unduly burdensome to conduct, because certain load sizes may be rarely used by consumers. Id.
The CA IOUs provided load size data from the 2016 PG&E survey that showed the following load size usage: Very small 3 percent, small 11 percent, medium 28 percent, large 45 percent, and very large 14 percent.62 CA IOUs, No. 8 at pp. 89 The CA IOUs stated that international research supports the conclusion that large loads represent a more significant portion of consumer operation than currently represented by 62 The CA IOUs did not define the terms very small, small, medium, large, or very large.

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Table 4.1.3 of Appendix J2. Id. The CA
IOUs recommended that DOE consider the results from the 2016 PG&E survey in updating the LUFs. Id.
NEEA presented its test data showing that 36 percent of consumer loads are small less than 6 lb, 52 percent are medium 6 lb to 12 lb, and 11 percent are large 12 lb or more. NEEA, No. 12
at p. 22 NEEA recommended, based on its testing data, that DOE update the LUFs to place higher weightings on smalland average-sized loads, and less weighting on maximum-sized loads. Id.
DOE notes that, as discussed previously in this document, the data presented from both NEEA and the CA
IOUs are regional in scope and do not necessarily represent national U.S.average usage. In addition, DOE notes that the two data sets offer opposing conclusions with regard to load size usage factors.
As previously discussed in section III.D.1.b of this document, DOE is proposing to replace the minimum, maximum, and average load sizes with the small and large load sizes in the proposed new Appendix J. DOE has defined the small and large load sizes such that the small and large load sizes each have an equal 5050 weighting.
As such, DOE is proposing to update the LUFs in the proposed new Appendix J
to 0.5 for both the small and the large load size. Because this proposal simplifies the LUF definitions by using the same LUFs regardless of clothes washer WFCS, a separate LUF table is no longer needed. DOE is therefore proposing to remove the LUF Table 4.1.3 and define the LUFs as 0.5 in the equations where the LUFs are first used in section 4.1.3 of the proposed new Appendix J.
DOE requests comment on its proposal to update the LUFs for the small and large load sizes to be equal to 0.5, consistent with the proposed load size definitions in the proposed new Appendix J.
6. Water Heater Assumptions Section 4.1.2 of Appendix J2 provides equations for calculating total per-cycle hot water energy consumption for all water fill levels tested. The hot water energy consumption is calculated by multiplying the measured volume of hot water by a constant fixed temperature rise of 75 F and by the specific heat of water, defined as 0.00240 kilowatthours per gallon per degree Fahrenheit kWh/gal-F. No efficiency or loss factor is included in this calculation, which implies an electric water heater efficiency of 100 percent. Similarly, section 4.1.4 of Appendix J2 provides an equation for calculating total per-cycle
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