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days, the U.S. government is both grappling with a host of critical
issues affecting people's safety and security — and trying
to figure out how best to get the economy moving. Yet, lest we take
for granted that government always has its priorities right, here's
just one example of those priorities going wildly astray. Under
an energy-efficiency rule for dishwashers, the Department of Energy
is now focusing on the really important question facing the U.S.:
How dirty are the dishes put in our dishwashers?
It turns out
that the DOE has to revise its test procedures to figure out the
amount of energy used by dishwashers. At the end of January, they
will be sending out an official Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and
will be holding a formal public workshop to grapple with this issue.
DOE's major concern is how to revise the test for measuring dishwashers'
energy efficiency. Their current test — don't laugh —
measures the energy used when a dishwasher washes clean dishes.
(Why that was adopted must be an interesting story.) But technology
has reared its ugly head: There are now dishwashers that sense how
dirty the dishes are, and then adjust the wash cycles to accommodate
the dirt level. Guess what the DOE found? The new dishwashers used
less energy washing clean dishes than washing dirty ones. So the
energy-efficient ratings of those appliances don't truly reflect
those machines doing their job — that is, cleaning dirty dishes.
In the words of our government, the smart dishwashers "...created
a challenge to the Dishwasher Test Procedure." No surprise
there, as government's zeal for regulating people's household appliances
(clothes washers and toilets) has led to a "one size fits all"
— and a "to hell with technology" — approach.
In the case of toilets, low-flush (or, sometimes, no-flush) toilets
resulted.
In the latest
household-appliance saga, the main purpose was to gather data for
a new test of dishwashers' use of energy. The Energy Department
of course hired consultants to review several surveys of consumer
dishwashing behavior. A report by Arthur D. Little, Inc., released
on December 18 focused on "key questions in revising the test
procedure for dishwashers." Among these are: "How soiled
are dishes in the dishwashers of U.S. households?" "How
are the dishwashers loaded in U.S. households?" and "How
often do U.S. households use a dishwasher?" The government
also wanted to know whether consumers rinse their dishes before
putting them in the machines.
There were
some earthshaking findings. About 7 percent of U.S. households "do
nothing" to their dishes before they run their dishwashers,
not bothering to wipe food scraps off the dishware. Some people
even use plastic dishes, and there is a hint that further monies
will likely be spent to study the "impact of plastic dishware."
At the other extreme of dishwashing behavior, 15 percent of U.S.
households prewash their dishes; this includes some scrubbing.
And what about
the level of goop on the dishes? That crucial question, too, is
being addressed by our government. Sixty-two percent of households
reported that their dishes were only lightly soiled, with a mere
5 percent laying claim to really dirty dishes.
In the midst
of war and terrorist attacks, DOE is spending lots of money trying
to find the answers to these and other questions. American taxpayers
could ask a basic question of their own: Why is the government spending
tax dollars on questions and answers about dirty dishes that are
better handled by detergent makers and dishwasher manufacturers?
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