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Energy Consumption of Major Household Appliances Shipped in Canada, Summary Report – Trends for 1990–2007

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Chapter 5 / Clothes Washers

In 2007, 55.3 percent of the clothes washers shipped in Canada were front-loading units, compared with 46.9 percent in 2006. The shipment-weighted average annual unit energy consumption (UEC) of front-loading clothes washers was 184 kilowatt hours (kWh) compared with 415 kWh for top-loading ones.

The ENERGY STAR® qualifying level for clothes washers increased again in January 2007. In that year, 58.4 percent of clothes washers on the market (98.8 percent of front-loading models and 8.4 percent of top-loading models) qualified for the ENERGY STAR specification.

As shown in Table 7, the average annual UEC of clothes washers decreased significantly during the study period. In 1990, 98.2 percent of those shipped consumed 800 kWh or more per year. By 2007, 71.0 percent of them consumed less than 400 kWh per year. This change is due, in large part, to the increased popularity of ENERGY STAR qualified clothes washers and front-loading models.

Table 7 Distribution of Clothes Washers by Average Annual Unit Energy Consumption

Model
Year
kWh/yr
<400 400–
499.9
500–
599.9
600–
699.9
700–
799.9
800–
899.9
900–
999.9
≥1000
  (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
1990 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.8 0.0 10.9 23.0 64.3
1991 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.0 21.8 12.2 65.7
1992 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 10.4 12.2 77.3
1993 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 15.6 13.4 70.6
1994 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.5 23.5 25.5 50.3
1995 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.5 26.7 28.0 44.4
1996 0.2 0.0 0.0 1.5 0.6 34.9 17.9 44.9
1997 2.7 0.0 0.0 1.6 0.3 37.1 10.4 47.9
1998 7.7 0.1 0.0 1.1 1.8 28.5 11.1 49.6
1999 10.6 1.3 0.0 1.6 10.3 18.4 31.3 26.4
2000 13.0 0.3 0.0 0.8 12.9 15.7 45.9 11.4
2001 17.0 0.1 0.0 0.3 13.1 14.9 51.6 3.0
2002 22.3 0.0 0.0 0.1 12.5 14.5 45.5 5.0
2003 28.5 0.1 4.2 0.2 10.3 18.2 36.9 1.6
2004 35.7 2.5 16.6 10.0 8.3 10.2 16.7 0.0
2005 48.3 3.4 28.3 7.8 4.4 2.4 5.5 0.0
2006 54.6 11.5 19.8 7.3 3.4 0.8 2.7 0.0
2007 71.0 26.3 0.3 1.8 0.5 0.0 0.2 0.0
Total
Change
+71.0 +26.3 +0.3 0.0 +0.5 -10.9 -22.8 -64.3

5.1 Energy Savings

Figure 8 illustrates the expected annual energy consumption for clothes washers if manufacturers had not met the minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and general improvements in energy efficiency (top line) and shows how much energy actually was consumed (bottom line). The gap between the two lines represents incremental annual energy savings.

Annual Energy Savings for Clothes Washers, 1992–2007.

On average, clothes washers would have consumed 0.99 petajoules (PJ) more per year without the contributing factors. The largest annual savings occurred in 2007, when clothes washers consumed approximately 2.72 PJ less than they might have otherwise. That amount is the equivalent of one year’s energy for approximately 24 400 households.

In 2007, cumulative energy savings for clothes washers reached 14.32 PJ (3.98 billion kWh). Dollar savings for clothes washers for the study period were estimated to be $378 million (calculated at 9.5 cents/kWh).

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