Consumers to Save with New Energy Efficient Washers and Dishwashers

Energy efficiency standards for residential clothes washers and dishwashers are designed to save consumers $20 billion in energy and water costs.
Credit: Dennis Schroeder/NREL

The Department of Energy on May 16 announced energy efficiency standards for residential clothes washers and dishwashers that are expected to save consumers $20 billion in energy and water costs. The clothes washers standard will save households approximately $350 apiece over the lifetime of the appliances. And home dishwashers will use approximately 15% less energy and more than 20% less water, directly providing consumers with savings on monthly bills.

Today, clothes washers and dishwashers account for approximately 3% of residential energy use and more than 20% of indoor water use in U.S. homes. The new standards for clothes washers will reduce the energy consumption of front-loading clothes washers by 15% and reduce water consumption by 35%, while the standards will reduce energy consumption by top-loading washers by 33% and reduce water consumption by 19%. The new standards—developed in partnership with companies such as Whirlpool, General Electric, and LG Electronics, industry advocates, national environmental organizations, consumer groups, and other stakeholders—build on previous minimum energy efficiency requirements for clothes washers and dishwashers. They go into effect starting in 2015 and 2013, respectively. The announcement is the most recent in a series of efficiency standards made by the Obama Administration that have covered nearly 40 different products, and will together save consumers nearly $350 billion on their energy bills through 2030. See the DOE press release and the Building Technologies Program website.

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Online Energy Department Tool Helps Consumers Cut Bills

The Energy Department announced on April 30 that it has launched the Utility Data Access Map tool, an interactive Web platform that enables electric utilities across the country to show customers, in a simple way, the data they can access on their electricity use. DOE has already received responses from more than 500 participating utilities.

Many consumers do not have enough data or they are not aware of the data they can access to make informed decisions about energy efficiency measures that could save them money. Among those who do have access to their data, some lack the ability to share it with service providers who might help them identify energy savings opportunities and verify savings once improvements have been made.

The Utility Data Access Map tool provides "crowd-sourced" maps in user-friendly formats based on information gathered from electricity providers nationwide. It highlights local access to electricity data and allows consumers to compare their electricity data access to others in their state and across the country. The data access maps display different features of consumer electricity data, including the time period and timeliness of data—informing consumers, for example, whether their utility supplies same-day electricity use information—and the extent to which the data can be shared. By helping consumers better understand their energy use and providing new ways to compare, local utilities are adopting "smart grid" technologies. See the DOE Progress Alert, the Utility Data Access Map, and the DOE OpenEI website, a collaborative system managed by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

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