This measure contains Proven applications for dryers based on their UCEF performance.  The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) has done extensive research in recent years to 1) demonstrate that the current federal performance metric, the Combined Energy Factor (CEF), is not an accurate predictor of dryer energy consumption in real world settings and 2) establish a performance metric that more reliably predicts dryer energy consumption in the field. As a result of this research, NEEA has developed the Utility Combined Energy Factor (UCEF) performance metric. While the measure is agnostic to what technologies are used to achieve particular UCEF value, the RTF expects that only heat pump dryers (including hybrid heat pump and resistance dryers) will qualify.

In 2017 NEEA conducted laboratory research of non-ENERGY STAR and conventional (resistance) ENERGY STAR dryers to measure these models' UCEF performance. They found that, on average, conventional ENERGY STAR dryers were more efficient than non-ENERGY STAR ones. After taking this new research into consideration, the RTF changed applications for ENERGY STAR qualified products from Planning to Proven.