Washer Dryer Standards are Changing Again

[cycla-fabric]

Hi All,
I just saw this tidbit and thought it would be nice to share about washer and dryer standards that are going to change again.

Doug

Washers and dryers are about to get a whole lot more efficient

New efficiency guidelines will save people $2.2 billion a year in energy costs and eliminate 71 million tons of planet-warming CO2.

grist.org

 

[appnut]

I'm using hot more than ever just so I can have warm. And that's in my front loader. But given how piss poor the typical American does laundry (throw everything in, cold water and barely enough cheap liqud detergent, one single pod, ... A new source of pollution, stinky people with their stinky clothes. Hot water on my LG is maxed at 44C at best. And that's a joke as far as I'm concerneed. For normal Hot turns out to be 35C. So that's what I use for a warm water wash. And by the end of the wash phase it down to 32C. IF I want true hot, I just use Sanitize cycle and vary the soil level to allow for different temps anywhere from 52C to 72C and it's getting to the point I gleefully want to send the one finger salute because I amn the one who should decide what water temp I want to do laundry not the government. It's similar with my Bosch dishwasher. I select cycles that give me wash temps I want to use to give me the results I expect.

[this post was last edited: 3/5/2024-19:52]

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

How much more efficient do these new washers and dryers need to be?

 

I just replaced both last year and besides meeting MY standards in being practical and easy to use (and getting a dryer door that opens down & having the lint filter in the threshold of) do we need another soapbox discussion going on?

 

Not necessarily here, but the idea afore mentioned, no expenses should be spared in something important like personal hygiene... As it is with washing our bodies, so should it be with what they wear...

 

 

 

-- Dave

 

[carolina128]

40% More Efficient Dryers?

“The updated standards — first reported by Grist — will result in top-loading clothes washers that are 11 percent more energy efficient than similar current machines while using 28 percent less water. Dryers will see up to a 40 percent reduction in energy use, depending on the model.“

I’m curious how that 40% reduction in dryers will be attained, other than a shift to ventless heat pump dyers. Traditional vented dryers are inherently energy hungry and it’s not clear to me where the 40% reduction would come from. One could probably wring some small efficiency gains in the tumble motor and blower fan, but beyond that I don’t see what can be achieved without changing to a ventless design.

 

[maytag85]

You can only make things efficient to the point they are not.

It’s just a band-aid since state and federal governments aren’t doing their part in terms of investing money into power plants that generate tons of power which mostly have water as a byproduct...

It’s the equivalent of asking people to patch up roads with potholes since they aren’t doing their part to fix roads with our tax payer money.

There are plenty of practical solutions to solve problems, but no one likes to be sensible or practical since “it’s too expensive”, the result is we keep putting band-aids on things instead of looking into how said problems can be fixed.

If only, if only…

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

I do actually wonder is it possible to have a heat pump

Heated washer and just replace the element with a heat pump with the same wattage but instead of it being used to just heat water, it can be used to heat the drum if it were a washer/dryer

 

[logixx]

V-Zug is one of the brands to sell a washer and dishwasher with heat pumps to supply heating in lower temp cycles (with the aid of a regular heater for hot cycles).

First table is for the model with, second table for the model without heat pump.

 

[henene4]

The nice thing about the heat pump washer really is that ANY cycle up to 50C just is about 30-50% more efficient, regardless of WHAT cycle you use.

Even a wool cycle just uses less energy.

The current VZug DWs use about 20% less energy on the Eco cycles.

But even beyond that. With or without heat pump assistance, those DWs only uses 1.1kWh on a cold only connection.
With cycle times at 2h tops.

 

[lakewebsterkid]

new standards

appnut.. couldn't agree more. I often times use Sanitize just to get a true hot wash. Thus, I am using MORE electric that way. Normal cycle with hot setting is a true warm wash. Before too long the warm water temp will be lower than that of the cold temp. 

Now for dryers, I'm sure it will be something like Whirlpool's EcoBoost option that prolongs cycle time. However, I do not like the fact that they strictly mention how dryers tend to overdry. They need to leave some of that alone.

 

[combo52]

More efficient washers and dryers coming

It will be quite a few years before most of the standards really kick in. I suspect when they say 40% reduction in energy use on dryers they’re talking about averaging everything together so some heat pumps will be included in the mix to bring up the overall efficiency average.

Gas dryers are already so efficient there’s not much you can do with those, and it doesn’t do much good to put a more efficient motor in because the waste heat just helps dry the clothing on a conventional vented dryer that is.

I have another full-size whirlpool hybrid heat pump dryer in the shop. We rebuilt one a few weeks ago. They put both a run and a start capacitor on the main motor which drops the current draw quite a bit, they did it not only to improve efficiency, but since you don’t have a lot of air going through the cabinet of the dryer, the heat would build up from a conventional inefficient split phase motor.