As 2004 draws to a close, it's a good time to review the major technical issues dealt with by manufacturers through AHAM. Suppliers to the industry have partnered in many of these initiatives through AHAM's Supplier Division. Factory shipments of home appliances remain strong, but manufacturers still must focus on innovation while reducing costs. This is a challenge for OEMs and their suppliers. While our technical issue portfolio predictably included much work on performance standards, a significant amount of attention was directed toward research project. Here is a sample of the top-tier technical issues appliance manufacturers have made progress on this year.

AHAM Performance Standards. Clearly, in the area of major home appliances, clothes washers are the primary focus of technical as well as public policy issues. The intensity of effort stems from the need to ensure that relevant performance testing standards can account for the changes in technology and the increasing importance of water supply as a public policy issue. AHAM's efforts begin with updates to our performance test standard for washers, HLW-1. A new soil/stain test, a gentleness of action test and recognition of current detergent usage are at the top of the list. We will also in large part adopt test load parameters in the IEC performance standard. It is hoped that these revisions will be published in early 2005, but our work won't stop there. It is likely we will then move to measurement of rinsing and whiteness performance, taking into account new washer technologies.

What began as an effort to develop a uniform measurement procedure for microwave oven volume expanded to include all ovens. A draft standard has been completed, and is currently being balloted, with the hope of being published in early 2005. This standard will respond to market interest in the capability of providing a common means to measure oven volume. AHAM's revised refrigerator/freezer test procedure, HRF-1, was accepted as an American National Standard by ANSI on July 8, 2004 and has been published as such. Noteworthy revisions to the previous HRF-1 standard include coverage of wine chillers, incorporation of new defrost schemes and better repeatability of results when testing compact units.

AHAM continued its work to expand the scope of our rating standard for room air cleaners, ANSI/AHAM AC-1-2002, and to develop a uniform test method for filter loading. We also initiated an independent review of the proposed draft AHAM AC-1 in March 2004, sending the draft standard to several recommended experts. This review process is now completed and the revised standard is being balloted by AHAM members, with the intention of being published early next year. It will then be submitted to ANSI for approval through the public review canvass process. In addition, AHAM intends to submit the standard to IEC for consideration as an international test method. On a separate track, a standard to measure air cleaner sound was completed by AHAM and is now before ANSI for approval. Lastly, AHAM's Air Cleaner Council is attempting to develop another standard to measure the long-term performance of air- cleaner filters. A number of meetings were held this year and will continue in 2005.

Cooperative Research. AHAM's Appliance Research Consortium previously submitted to the U.S. EPA the results of research it sponsored to determine to what extent the HFCs embedded in fluorocarbon-blown insulation actually reach the atmosphere when a discarded appliance is disposed of or shredded. The work is important because U.S. and global computer models assume 100 percent of the HFCs reach the atmosphere and contribute to global climate change. The study, performed by a Danish researcher and funded in part by EPA, indicates that, contrary to the current EPA vintaging model, all of the HFC blowing agent in the foam is not released instantaneously upon disposal/shredding. Rather, only between 20 percent and 40 percent of the HFC content is emitted at the time of shredding, depending on the size of shredded particles. The Appliance Research Consortium is in the process of confirming its findings at several U.S. shredders, and EPA is committed to revising its vintaging model accordingly. The results of this work is also being cited in the international Special Report on issues related to HFCs, which is being developed by the IPCC and the technical arm of the parties to the Montreal Protocol. AHAM members are actively participating in this technical Special Report, which will be used to set policy related to use of HFCs in the future.

No other issue has brought together AHAM's four membership divisions as has product recycling, better known as extended producer responsibility. In 2004, AHAM members and staff sat down with our Canadian counterparts in the Canadian Appliance Manufacturers Association to coordinate industry efforts related to possible government initiatives. Ontario, Canada has implemented product packaging requirements and is now considering product take back requirements for electronics and possibly other products. AHAM is sponsoring research this year and next, which will provide a factual basis for understanding the current state of appliance recycling and the characterization of appliance materials.