Standby Product Profile - Clothes Washers

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Background

In 2002, the Ministerial Council on Energy released "Money isn't all you're saving" a long-term strategy to address excessive standby energy used by consumer appliances and equipment. This strategy is also known as the "1 Watt" standby power plan.

Summary

This standby product profile covers Clothes Washers. Clothes washing machines have been around for over a century with the modern appliance available in a wide variety of sizes and styles. The four distinct classes of machine are:

Top loading machines that have a vertical axis and clean by agitating fully immersed clothes. This type of washer is more common in Australia and the United States.
Front loading machines that have a horizontal axis and clean using a tumbling action that gently drops the clothes into the water. This type of machine is more common in Europe.
Twin Tub machines that function as a top loading agitating machine however they contain separate compartments for washing and spinning allowing the same water to be reused for more than one wash. These once popular machines are now only a very small part of the market.
Washer/Dryer combinations are units that perform the function of clothes washer and dryer within a single cylinder. These units typically operate as front loading models although top loading units are available. This type of machine has a very small part of the market. There has however been a small increase in the availability and popularity of these units with marketing focused on the compact nature as ideal for apartment dwellers and differently abled people.

Washing machines are available in a range of sizes from a compact 3kg capacity to large 8.5kg capacity. In 2001 the average capacity of clothes washers available in the Australian market was 6.2kg. Most modern washing machines offer a wide range of cycles that consumers can choose from, allowing the machine to operate appropriately to the task.

This standby product profile for Clothes Washers covers the following broad topics:

product description
current ownership and trends
relevant modes for the "1 Watt" standby power plan
known standby data for the product
greenhouse emissions
current overseas policies and trends for the product
proposed government target to meet the "1 Watt" standby power plan.

To support the preparation of this and other profiles, NAEEEC commissioned store surveys of products in major retail stores during 2001, 2002 and 2003 to collect standby measurements from a wide range of appliances and equipment. The results of these measurements are available in NAEEEC Report 2003/04.

Government Target

In accordance with the National Standby Strategy, NAEEEC intends to recommend to the Ministerial Council on Energy an 'interim' target. The purpose of which is to provide governments with confidence that Australian products will meet the ultimate target, of one watt in 2012. If the 'interim' target is not met in the specified year, government will commence dialogue with industry to explore other options, including the possibility of moving to Stage 2 mandatory measures.

The interim target for 2007 is:

an off mode power of less than 1 Watt
a passive standby power consumption of less than 4 Watts

The ultimate target for 2012 is:

an off mode power of less than 0.3 Watt
a passive standby power consumption of less than 1 Watt

Government will announce whether this product should be targeted for stage two intervention under the National Standby Power Strategy (involving possible regulatory intervention) or whether the abovementioned actions together with industry intervention have been successful in meeting the target at the NAEEEC Forum in the year: 2008.

This page last modified 02 February 2009