Abstract
This article describes the analysis of monetary and energy savings attributable to various energy efficiency levels considered as potential US federal standards for residential clothes dryers. The analysis examined benefits to both consumers and the nation as a whole. Benefits to consumers were evaluated based on the life-cycle cost of affected appliances and the payback period associated with increased first costs. Benefits to the nation incorporate both energy and financial savings associated with each potential efficiency standard. The analysis incorporated the most current information on field use of clothes dryers, which shows that dryer usage and the moisture in clothes are less than previously thought. The analysis found that high-efficiency heat pump clothes dryers would be cost-effective for nearly one fifth of US households. However, for both electric standard and gas clothes dryers, standards that improve efficiency by 5 % appear to be the highest levels that have a positive net present value of consumer benefit.
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Notes
This study considered vented clothes dryers only. The analysis done for DOE includes results for ventless products as well, which are analyzed as a separate product class.
The spreadsheets are accessible at: (http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/).
See Chapter 5, Engineering Analysis, of the Technical Support Document that DOE developed for its rulemaking, available at http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/residential/residential_clothes_dryers_room_ac_direct_final_rule_tsd.html.
Subsequent to the completion of the study described in this paper, field data from the Pacific Northwest on clothes dryer use became available. Although the data are limited to a specific region, they suggest that the annual number of clothes dryer cycles may be higher than indicated by RECS 2005. The implications of these new data for the conclusions given in this paper are considered in the “Discussion of Key Assumptions” section below.
The Combined Energy Factor includes active mode and standby mode energy use.
An indirect effect would arise if a household sold some assets in order to pay off a loan or credit card debt that might have been used to finance the actual appliance purchase.
The test procedure assumption refers to full-length cycles. It is known that consumers also use “touch-up” cycles, but quantification of such use is difficult.
We acknowledge that some consumers with newer washers may not use the settings that result in low RMC, which would lead to higher dryer energy use. The impact of consumers using other RMC settings needs to be quantified in future field studies.
Abbreviations
- CEF:
-
Combined energy factor
- LCC:
-
Life-cycle cost
- NES:
-
National energy savings
- NIA:
-
National impact analysis
- NPV:
-
Net present value
- PBP:
-
Payback period
- RMC:
-
Remaining moisture content
- UEC:
-
Unit energy consumption
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Acknowledgments
The work described in this report was funded by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Program under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The authors acknowledge the careful editing of Moya Melody.
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Lekov, A., Franco, V. & Meyers, S. Evaluation of energy efficiency standards for residential clothes dryers in the USA. Energy Efficiency 7, 133–149 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-013-9214-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-013-9214-x