Proposed Clothes Washer Standards Revision Program AS/NZS 2040.1 and AS/NZS 2040.2

Downloading the PDF Version

The full document is available as a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view it. The Adobe Reader is a free product.

Download Proposed Clothes Washer Standards Revision Program AS/NZS 2040.1 and AS/NZS 2040.2 (280 kB)

If you are unable to access this document, please contact the The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency to organise a suitable alternative format.

Summary

This paper sets out the details of a revision program proposed by regulators to both the clothes washer test standard (AS/NZS 2040.1: 2005) and the associated clothes washer regulatory standard (AS/NZS 2040.2:2005).

The development of this paper is largely based on work undertaken by the EL 15-4 standards committee and in particular Working Group 9. Since 2005, Working Group 9 has been moving towards an alignment with the IEC standard.

Whilst the proposed revisions will not achieve alignment with the impending publication of IEC60456 edition 5, it does aim to help smooth the way for a future alignment should future revisions to the IEC standard prove to be more global in approach and hence more suitable for application of that standard in Australia. Having siad that, the proposed revisions are not solely focused on better alignment with the IEC standard and in fact there are several objectives as follows:

Continue to work towards alignment with the IEC test standard where such alignment does not present an unacceptably high level of compromise to the integrity of the energy labelling program. The goal remains to achieve alignment with IEC60456 edition 6, noting that work on edition 6 is yet to commence and significant input would be required to make it suitable for adoption.
Continued improvement of the repeatability and reproducibility of the test standard mainly through tighter specification of materials and test procedures where there are known issues.
Introduce a part load test option that will allow credit to be achieved in the form of improved star ratings for machines that can reduce energy and water consumption in response to a reduced load size.
Revise the energy label to include the new expanded 10 star rating scale and provide enhanced levels of information for consumers.
Upgrade the stringency of the water extraction (spin) performance requirement as a means of reducing the energy consumption of dryers.

This page last modified 10 June 2010