Energy and water savings potential in automatic laundry washing processes

Pakula, Christiane; Stamminger, Rainer

doi:10.1007/s12053-014-9288-0

Cited by 39 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In particular, energy consumption of washing machines in different countries has been reported in a number of studies such as AISE (2013), Koerner et al (2011), Laitala et al (2011), Lin and Iyer (2007, Market Transformation Programme (2010), Masanet (2010), Novem (2001), Pakula and Stamminger (2015), Presutto et al (2007), Yao and Steemers (2005) and Zaraket (2014). Inter-country variability arises from the differences in the GHG footprint of the electricity grid mixes and systematic differences in consumer behaviour in different countries.…”

Section: Responsible Editor: Serenella Salamentioning

confidence: 98%

Quantifying drivers of variability in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of consumer products—a case study on laundry washing in Europe

Shahmohammadi

Steinmann

Clavreul

et al. 2017

Int J Life Cycle Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose Variability in consumer behaviour can significantly influence the environmental performance of products and their associated impacts and this is typically not quantified in life cycle assessments. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate how consumer behaviour data can be used to understand and quantify the variability in the greenhouse gas emissions from domestic laundry washing across Europe. Methods Data from a pan-European consumer survey of product usage and washing habits was combined with internal company data on product format greenhouse gas (GHG) footprints and in-home measurement of energy consumption of laundry washing as well as literature data to determine the GHG footprint of laundry washing. The variability associated with four laundry detergent product formats and four wash temperature settings in washing machines were quantified on a per wash cycle basis across 23 European countries. The variability in GHG emissions associated with country electricity grid mixes was also taken into account. Monte Carlo methods were used to convert the variability in the input parameters into variability of the life cycle GHG emissions. Rank correlation analysis was used to quantify the importance of the different sources of variability. Results and discussion Both inter-country differences in background electricity mix as well as intra-country variation in consumer behaviour are important for determining the variability in life cycle GHG emissions of laundry detergents. The average GHG emissions related to the laundry washing process in the 23 European countries in 2014 was estimated to be 5 × 10 2 g CO 2 − eq/wash cycle, but varied by a factor of 6.5 between countries. Intra-country variability is between a factor of 3.5 and 5.0 (90% interval). For countries with a mainly fossil-based electricity system, the dominant source of variability in GHG emissions results from consumer choices in the use of washing machines. For countries with a relatively low-carbon electricity mix, variability in life cycle GHG emissions is mainly determined by laundry product-related parameters.Conclusions The combination of rich data sources enabled the quantification of the variability in the life cycle GHG emissions of laundry washing which is driven by a variety of consumer choices, manufacturer choices and infrastructural differences of countries. The improved understanding of the variability needs to be balanced against the cost and challenges of assessing of consumer habits.

show abstract

Section: Responsible Editor: Serenella Salamentioning

confidence: 98%

Quantifying drivers of variability in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of consumer products—a case study on laundry washing in Europe

Shahmohammadi

Steinmann

Clavreul

et al. 2017

Int J Life Cycle Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…displays the users' temperature conditions for all the TCL. Data retrieved from energy audits was used to reproduce the operation of shiftable loads and the number of weekly operation cycles of each one of these loads was adjusted according to the household size, based on [73,74] (Error! Reference source not found.).…”

Section: Scenario Description and Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Influence of Different Goals in Energy Communities’ Self-Sufficiency—An Optimized Multiagent Approach

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding to what extent the emergence of prosumers and prosumagers organized in energy communities can impact the organization and operation of power grids has been one of the major recent research avenues at the European level. In renewable-based communities aiming to reach some level of energy self-sufficiency, a key issue to be addressed is assessing how the presence of end-users playing different roles in the system (self-consuming, producing and trading, performing demand management, etc.) can influence the overall system performance. In this setting, this paper combines Distributed Artificial Intelligence and optimization approaches to assess how prosumagers and consumers pursuing different goals can influence the energy self-sufficiency of a local energy community. The residential demand is accurately modeled, and the agents’ preferences are considered in the modeling to represent a smart community. The results show that although energy community members may have conflicting individual goals, the overall system self-sufficiency can be maximized with economic benefits for all stakeholders, thus illustrating the advantages of energy communities.

show abstract

“…Since their introduction, the success of Energy Labelling and Ecodesign have encouraged the development of ever more energy-efficient products, describing product performance to allow consumers to make informed purchase decisions and driving competition and innovation towards better-performing products. Recent consumer surveys Schmitz et al 2016;Pakula and Stamminger 2015;Kruschwitz et al 2014) show that about 85% of European citizens look at energy efficiency labels when they purchase products (Europa press 2017).…”

Section: Introduction and Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rescaling the energy label for washing machines: an opportunity to bring technology development and consumer behaviour closer together

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Washing machines have in recent years incorporated programmes that are very energy-and waterefficient, but this entails a long programme duration, often beyond 4 h. These are also the programmes that the manufactures use to define, test and declare the overall water and energy efficiency of the machines. In response to these developments, there is evidence that consumers are reluctant to use excessively lengthy programmes, even if they are aware that the programmes are more energy-efficient.This paper analyses this divergence of programme offer and programme use, which jeopardises the energy efficiency policy objectives for these appliances in the European Union (EU). The paper explores several policy measures to address this divergence, discussed in the context of the revision of the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling regulations that apply to washing machines in the EU.Three different measures are studied: the provision of information about the programme duration on the energy label, the inclusion of time as an intrinsic parameter of the energy efficiency index calculations and the setting of a programme duration cap.The paper concludes that introducing programme duration as an additional parameter of the energy efficiency index would result in the highest energy savings. However, this scenario is associated with significant uncertainties since competition among the manufacturers for a better energy label classification will not solely focus on energy efficiency aspects, and the outcome of such competition is unclear. The other two measures investigated are less effective but would also deliver savings. A programme duration cap would bring energy savings if consumers are aware of their existence and select the now shorter yet energy-efficient programmes more often. The provision of programme duration information on the energy label would also be effective but requires that consumers are able to correctly understand it.

show abstract

Energy and water savings potential in automatic laundry washing processes

Cited by 39 publications

References 8 publications

Quantifying drivers of variability in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of consumer products—a case study on laundry washing in Europe

Quantifying drivers of variability in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of consumer products—a case study on laundry washing in Europe

Assessing the Influence of Different Goals in Energy Communities’ Self-Sufficiency—An Optimized Multiagent Approach

Rescaling the energy label for washing machines: an opportunity to bring technology development and consumer behaviour closer together

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About