Efficiency standards in EC and Europe

Vibeke Østergaard and Sietze van der Sluis, Group for Efficeint Appliances

Keywords

Abstract

In 1992 to answer the Dutch notification for efficiency standards for fridge/freezers the EC Commission contracted (Group for Efficient Appliances) GEA to do a study on statistical as well as technical and economic analyses for those appliances. GEA was established in 1991 as a technical working group whose aim is to carry out analyses necessary for efficiency standards for electric appliances. GEA has members from the energy agencies in France, The Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal. The study described here analyzes around 3500 models from eight countries or around 70% of the EC market. As a statistical approach the 10% saving, 15% saving and the average lines in 8 categories were calculated to propose efficiency levels in the short term. Germany, Denmark and Italy seem to be the most efficient markets.

France, United Kingdom and Portugal are the least efficient markets analyzed. The technical and economic analyses described basecase models for each category and possible improvements by design options available to the manufacturers, ranked by their economic profitability to the consumer. The resulting life-cycle costs are the net present value of the applianceÉs initial cost and the operating expenses cumulated over the life time of the appliance. The minima of the life-cycle costs are the proposals for long term levels showing efticiency improvements of between 38 and 55% of today's average and between 3 and 4,3 years of payback. Accumulated savings between 1995 and 2015 were calculated to be around 500 TWh in EC by introducing standards.
Realizing the large saving potential depends especially on the EC approach which will likely be followed not only by the member states, but all over Europe.