Residential Cooking Products & Commercial Clothes Washers

Efficiency Standards History

In addition to the two considered products, residential cooking products and commercial clothes washers, this rulemaking includes residential dehumidifiers and dishwashers. However, the latter two products were removed from the analysis because they became subject to standards through the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) passed by Congress in December, 2007.

The Department of Energy (DOE) posted a Framework Document on its website describing its plan for the analysis of the four appliance products, and published a Federal Register notice of the document's availability on March 27, 2006. DOE held a public meeting on April 27, 2006, to discuss and receive comments on the Framework Document and on issues related to establishing standards for these products.

DOE published the advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR) and technical support document (TSD) in November, 2007. DOE conducted a public meeting to discuss the ANOPR in December, 2007.

Residential Cooking Products

This product category includes residential electric and gas kitchen ranges and ovens and microwave ovens. The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act (NAECA) established prescriptive standards effective in 1990 for gas cooking products, prohibiting gas ranges and ovens with an electrical supply cord from being equipped with constant burning pilot lights. DOE also published amendments to the test procedures for kitchen ranges, cooktops, ovens, and microwave ovens in October, 1997.

DOE published a final rule in September, 1998, that covered only electric cooking products, including microwave ovens. At that time, the final rule found that no standards were justified for electric cooking products.

Under NAECA, this rulemaking is DOE's first update considering amended efficiency standards for gas cooking products and its second update considering amended efficiency standards for electric cooking products, including microwave ovens. For more information, see DOE's residential cooking products website. This website includes the link to the webpage for the technical support document upon which DOE based its final rule for residential cooking equipment, dated September 8, 1998.

Commercial Clothes Washers

EPACT 2005 established minimum energy and water efficiency standards for commercial clothes washers. The standards set in EPACT are the same as those for residential clothes washers. The minimum allowable modified energy factor (MEF) is 1.26 and the maximum allowable water factor is 9.5. The standards apply to commercial clothes washers manufactured after January 1, 2007.

EPACT 2005 also required DOE to conduct a rulemaking by January 1, 2010 to determine whether an amendment to these standards is warranted. If so, the standards will take effect three years after a final rule is published. This is the subject of the current rulemaking analysis.

For more information, see DOE's commercial clothes washers website.

Product Description and Usage

Residential Cooking Products

The covered products include:

gas kitchen ranges and standard ovens,
electric kitchen ranges and standard ovens, and
microwave ovens.

Commercial Clothes Washers are defined as soft-mount, front-loading or soft-mount, top-loading clothes washers that:

have a clothes container compartment that:

- for horizontal-axis clothes washers is not more than 3.5 cubic feet; and

- for vertical-axis clothes washers is not more than 4.0 cubic feet; and

are designed for use in applications in which the occupants of more than one household will be using the clothes washer, such as multi-family housing common areas and coin laundries; or other commercial applications.

Commercial clothes washers are similar in design and operation to residential clothes washers. However, they often have coin slots, card readers, or other devices to accept payment for each wash cycle.

Front-loading, or horizontal-axis, clothes washers are typically, but not always, more efficient in terms of energy and water usage than top-loading, or vertical-axis, clothes washers.

Efficiency Rating

Residential Cooking Products. The efficiency metrics for cooking products are cooking efficiency and Energy Factor. Cooking efficiency is defined as the ratio of the energy absorbed by the food to the total energy input to the cooking device. Energy Factor (EF) is the ratio of the annual useful cooking energy output of the residential cooking appliance (i.e. the energy conveyed to the item being heated) to its total annual energy consumption. The EF is primarily a function of the cooking efficiency, and in fact, for all electric cooktops and gas cooktops equipped with an electronic ignition device, the EF is equal to the cooking efficiency. But for gas cooktops equipped with standing pilots, the EF is also a function of the gas energy consumption of the pilot lights. This results in the EF being significantly lower than the cooking efficiency.

Commercial Clothes Washers. Modified energy factor (MEF) measures the energy use of the clothes washer and the remaining moisture content left in the clothes leaving the washer, which is related to dryer energy use. The water consumption of clothes washers is also regulated with a water factor, defined in the test procedure as gallons per cycle per cubic foot.

Product Classes

Residential Cooking Products product classes are: