Global residential appliance standards

Isaac Turiel and Jim McMahon, Lawrence berkeley Laboratory, USA
Benoit Lebot, Ademe, France

Abstract

ln most countries, residential electricity consumption typically ranges from 20% to 40% of total electricity consumption. This energy is used for heating, cooling, refrigeration and other end-uses. Significant energy savings are possible if new appliance purchases are for models with higher efficiency than that of existing models. There are several ways to ensure or encourage such an outcome, for example, appliance rebates, innovative procurement, and minimum efficiency standards. This paper focuses on the latter approach. At the present time, the U.S. is the only country with comprehensive appliance energy efficiency standards.

However, many other countries, such as Australia, Canada, the European Community (EC), Japan and Korea, are considering enacting standards. The greatest potential impact of minimum efficiency standards for appliances is in the developing countries (e.g., China and lndia), where saturations of household appliances are relatively Iow but growing rapidly. This paper discusses the potential savings that could be achieved from global appliance efficiency standards for refrigerators and freezers. It also discusses the impediments to establishing common standards for certain appliance types, such as differing test procedures, characteristics, and fuel prices. A methodology for establishing global efficiency standards for refrigerators and freezers is described.