Higher Dishwasher Tiers Provide Differentiation; Include Water Use

CEE Tier 1 dishwashers (0.65 EF or greater) represented 86 percent of sales as of the fourth quarter of 2007. In response to these market conditions, the residential Appliance Committee recommended to the Board on June 6 that Tier 1 move to 0.72 EF, with a water requirement of 5.0 gallons per cycle. Also approved was a new Tier 2 at 0.75 EF with a water requirement of 4.25 gallons per cycle. These changes correspond with a new ENERGY STAR^® level going into effect on August 11, 2009.

This is the first dishwasher specification to include a water metric, measured in gallons per cycle. The CEE specification is designed to deliver sufficient savings to enable CEE members to run cost-effective programs and prevent increases in energy efficiency that come at a cost to water efficiency.

In terms of aggregate savings, staff estimates that Tier 1 models will save a total of 42,426 MWh and 425 million gallons of water per year, and Tier 2 models will save 24,106 MWh and 290 million gallons of water per year over the new federal standard effective January 1, 2010. Qualified product lists will be updated to accommodate the new water savings data.

Effective August 11, 2009
Notes: Compact dishwashers are defined by DOE as those with fewer than 8 place settings. The Federal Standard currently uses EF as its energy metric but will switch to kWh/year starting in January 2010. When the new federal standard becomes effective in 2010, the chart will be updated accordingly.