Washing Today and Tomorrow

There are some types of clothing—like wool sweaters—that simply should not go into a standard tumble dryer. Woolen sweaters and delicate garments are typically laid flat and allowed to air-dry. For a heavy wool sweater, air-drying can be a two-day process. Electrolux (Stockholm, Sweden; www.electrolux.com) says 92% of consumers have difficulties with drying woolen garments, and the company went out to develop a solution. The appliance it developed is the Calima, the first washing machine with an extendable drying board to quickly dry clothes flat. Users can take the sweater out of the washing machine and place it on the drying board, choosing the type of fabric and temperature setting. Fans blow warm air through openings in the panel to dry the garment. The user turns the garment once and it is dry in 60 minutes. It can be used to dry various delicate garments or standard garments that the user needs to wear in a hurry.

Project manager Salvatore Valenti calls it a “consumer insight–driven machine” and says when tested with target consumers it “…is seen as addressing a real need and adding real value to the washing machine and laundry process.” The Calima launched in France and Central East Europe in March and April this year and is scheduled to roll out in Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Russia, and Belgium.

There are other technologies making their way into laundry appliances that, not long ago, would have seemed highly unlikely.

Heat-Pump Dryers

Dryers don’t normally get much attention when it comes to energy efficiency initiatives. In the United States, in fact, there is no Energy Star for clothes dryers. According to the Energy Star program, “there is little difference in energy use between (dryer) models.” Industry, government, and even environmental advocates have often put dryer efficiency standards low on the priority list. Better water extraction at the end of the wash cycle, for example, is often seen as a more promising avenue for improving the efficiency of the drying process than is any practical improvement to the appliance that actually does the drying.

But now technologies are emerging that challenge the idea that dryer efficiency can’t be significantly improved. In Gütersloh, Germany, engineers with appliance OEM Miele (www.miele.com) have integrated heat-pump technology into a clothes dryer as a way to reduce energy consumption. The EcoComfort operates on the principle of two closed circuits: the process air circuit and the cooling circuit. The cooling circuit has two functions. First, heat energy is transferred to process air and, secondly, residual heat from the drying process is recovered, both helping to make the unit exceptionally energy-efficient.

The unit launched with Europe’s A rating for energy efficiency and Miele says that, in fact, the unit is almost 40% more economical than required for an A rating. The unit saves up to 46% energy and CO2 compared with conventional condenser dryers with a B rating. The dryer is also marketed in Australia, where the model T 8627 WP EcoComfort earned a 6-star energy rating and launched as the most energy-efficient condenser dryer on the market in Australia. While the technology gives the heat-pump dryer a premium price, Miele estimates a 3.5-year payback for Australian buyers.

Energy Questions

Engineers have been reducing the energy consumption of household appliances year after year, for decades. Energy-efficiency standards and rating systems haven’t always kept up. For the last 15 years, domestic appliance manufacturers in Europe have generally been on pace to increase the efficiency of their products by 20% every four years (without corresponding retail price increases). Europe’s energy rating system, which gives appliances a grade of A through G, became inadequate when a growing percentage of appliances on the market qualified for, and exceeded to a growing degree, the minimum level of the A rating.

A fix for the problem in Europe was adopted by the European Union in March 2009. The upgraded energy efficiency labeling system, for household refrigerators and freezers as well as washing machines, keeps the familiar A-to-G energy efficiency label while allowing appliances surpassing the Class A criteria to be classified by the level of their additional savings. Ratings such as A-20%, A-40%, etc., give consumers straightforward information about the efficiency of the appliance. CECED, the European household appliance manufacturers’ association, welcomed the new label scheme and also approved of plans by the Committee on Ecodesign and Energy Labeling of Energy using Products (EuP) to phase Class A washing machines out of the market by 2013. “The fact that the Committee has already identified dates when Class A appliances will be taken out of the market indicates how urgently we needed a new energy label layout,” said Luigi Meli, CECED director general. “We are pleased to now have a tool that will support our efforts to continue improving the energy efficiency of our products well beyond Class A.”

In the United States, energy efficiency has been spurred by the success of the Energy Star program, developed jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy to help consumers easily pick out products that offer energy-efficiency levels substantially higher than the minimum standards.

More-Stringent Standards

The standards for Energy Star qualification are adjusted as minimum energy-efficiency standards are updated. In fact, clothes washer Energy Start criteria changed as of July 1 of this year.

As of July 2009, the federal washing machine standard calls for a minimum Modified Energy Factor (MEF) of 1.26. The MEF is intended to take into account the amount of dryer energy needed to remove the remaining moisture content in washed items.

Under the new Energy Star requirements, washers should have a minimum MEF of 1.8 (up from 1.72 before July 1). Energy Star washers must also have a maximum water factor (WF) of 7.5 (the maximum was 8.0 before July 1). Water factor is the amount of water used in the appliances, measured in gallons per cycle per cubic foot.

The U.S. federal standard for washing machines, and the requirements for Energy Star rated washing machines, will both change on Jan. 1, 2011. The federal standard will continue to require a minimum MEF of 1.26 but will add a WF requirement of 9.5 maximum. To qualify for the Energy Star logo after Jan. 1, 2011, washing machines will need to have a minimum MEF of 2.0 and a maximum WF of 6.0.

Appliance OEMs will continue to drive down washer and dryer energy consumption, even as they seek to bring new ease of use capabilities to laundry appliances.

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