This report summarises results from the 2017 Australian round robin testing of dishwashers to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60436 Electric dishwashers for household use - Methods for measuring the performance (Edition 4) test standard.
The Australian and New Zealand governments have long standing policies to adopt international test standards where it is considered appropriate. Round robin processes provide Australian and New Zealand regulators with confidence about the capability of regional test laboratories to undertake reliable and repeatable tests to international standards, should Australia and New Zealand decide to adopt such standards. This has significant implications for future compliance and enforcement activities. The round robin’s other goals include:
- Providing participating laboratories with practical testing experience using IEC 60436 procedures and building their testing capacities
- Providing an opportunity to seek regional experts’ opinions regarding the technical suitability of IEC 60436 as a basis for future regulation in Australia and New Zealand
- Generating data and conducting analysis in order to provide technical feedback to the IEC with respect to any specific issues in the IEC test method prior to its adoption in Australia and New Zealand.
The Equipment Energy Efficiency (E3) Program funded the round robin process and Energy Efficient Strategies was engaged to manage the project and produce a report. Four independent test laboratories conducted the specified tests on a Bosch and Miele dishwasher.
The round robin yielded substantial information regarding the IEC test method. The data collected also allowed some limited benchmarking back to the Australian and New Zealand test method currently used for local regulation.
The results showed an acceptable overall spread of energy consumption results across test laboratories of 3.0 per cent which is in line with expectations for this type of appliance.
The report includes recommendations that have been provided to the IEC’s SC 59A (Electric Dishwashers) Committee.