Issue 36 December 2005
Out in the wash: The carwash rating scheme is encouraging operators to become more water-efficient
Water-efficiency rating and labelling schemes for household appliances and commercial carwashes are being hailed as among the world's best in providing meaningful water efficiency information.
The new national schemes will display labels and signs to help consumers save water.
From 1 July next year, many new water-using appliances will be required by law to display a water-efficiency rating label.
And commercial carwashes are also beginning to display water-efficiency rating signs as part of a new voluntary, industry-driven scheme.
The water savings that each scheme is predicted to achieve are considerable. Domestic water consumption is projected to fall by five per cent or 87,200 million litres a year by 2021, largely because Australian consumers will choose more efficient appliances. Almost half of these savings will come from clothes washing machines, about 25 per cent from showers and 22 per cent from toilets.
And if consumers choose more efficient commercial carwashes, another 780 million litres a year of drinking water will be saved.
"The educational role of water-rating labels is critical in reducing consumer water consumption," says the Department of Environment and Heritage's Shane McWhinney, who led the development of the new Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards rating system.
"The new scheme is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. It states the actual water consumption of the appliance as well as rating its relative water efficiency.
"Consumers will be able to go to a national database on the Internet, compare the appliance's water efficiency and consumption with its competitors, and calculate its annual water consumption and running costs."
Using a maximum of six stars, the appliance rating system builds on and replaces the 5A water-efficiency rating label that was created and administered by the Water Services Association of Australia, the industry association that represents Australia's water utilities.
WSAA Deputy Executive Director Claude Piccinin says: "The 5A scheme gave our members' customers a coherent and informative guide to water use inside the home, especially for those items that are large users of water.
"As we are not a regulator, the scheme was voluntary, so achieving widespread display of the labels on appliances was a problem. Manufacturers and distributors were happy to apply them to water-efficient appliances, but resisted displaying them on less efficient ones.
Sign of the times: Information at carwashes such as Clean Bay Carwash, in Strathmore, is designed to help people choose sites that save water
"With our encouragement, the Federal Government is amending the Australian/New Zealand standards, and passed legislation in March to make the new scheme mandatory."
Terry Fogarty, of whitegoods manufacturer Fisher and Paykel, is an industry representative on the Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards laundry appliances committee.
"The scheme is designed to complement the existing energy-efficiency label," Mr Fogarty says. "The committee developed procedures and standards with the philosophy that a washing machine should not only be water efficient, it must also perform its primary function of washing and rinsing clothes while being efficient.
"Australia and New Zealand are leading the world with our washing machine standard. The achievement of industry and government in producing a repeatable and reproducible rinse performance test, a key part of the standard, should not be underestimated. Europe has been working on this issue for more than 10 years without consensus."
Mr Fogarty says the labels are meaningful to consumers because they are based on a normal wash program. Ten years ago, a lot of washing machines used 30 litres of water per kilogram of clothes, but now the average is half that figure. Under the labelling scheme, a machine that washes five kilograms of clothes using a normal program and 51 litres of water receives a four-star water rating.
The drive for water efficiency has led to manufacturers designing more efficient machines that achieve an optimum mix of mechanical action, chemical action (detergent), water temperature, and quantity of water. For example, smart manufacturers are now adding a pre-wash cycle that optimises the detergent's cleaning power.
The Australian Car Wash Association is similarly concerned that its new Car Wash Water Saver Rating Scheme should win consumer confidence through a consistent national set of ratings displayed at carwashes.
Geoff Logie-Smith, chairman of the association's water strategy committee, says: "We could see that water was an issue that would only grow in importance on regional and national agendas.
"As a responsible industry body, we took the challenge of self-regulating and using the water rating scheme to encourage the carwash industry to invest in water efficiency and conservation.
"We haven't been able to find another carwash water efficiency rating scheme elsewhere in the world, but the 5A appliance rating scheme was a useful model for us and we have adopted some of its principles."
The association began looking at its water rating scheme more than two years ago, and won financial support from the Victorian Government's Smart Water Fund last year.
In Victoria, the higher the rating of a carwash, the more assured it is of being able to continue operating in times of water restrictions.
The carwash scheme is not prescriptive in how operators should become more water efficient, but the big water savings will come from automatic washes installing a unit to recycle wash water.
The association also says that efficiencies can be created by recycling water rejected from reverse osmosis units rather than sending it to sewer, ensuring optimum water pressure and good maintenance procedures such as replacing nozzles regularly.
Ann White is Project Manager of the Car Wash Water Saver Rating Scheme