Energy consumption of whitegoods – what is improving and what is not: analysis of 13 years of data in Australia

Lloyd Harrington and Jack Brown, Energy Efficient Strategies, Australia

Keywords

whitegoods, appliances, refrigerators, clothes washers, dishwashers, clothes dryers, energy consumption, trends

Abstract

Austsralia has had an energy labelling program for white goods since 1986. Since 1993, market data on total sales for refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers, clothes dryers and dishwashers have been purchased from a commercial data collection agency. Sales volume and price for each model number provided and this has been cross matched with detailed attribute data which is contained in the mandatory government registration system.

This paper explores the changes in efficiency that have occurred in these white goods over 13 years. In this period the market for refrigerator-freezers has moved from being dominated by manual defrost freezers to being totally frost free. The energy consumption has continued to decline at around 3 % per annum despite increases in frost free share and increases in volume. The impact of stringent new minimum energy performance standards introduced in 2005 is spectacular for both refrigerators and freezers with nearly a 30 % reduction in energy over a 2 year period.

In the case of clothes washers, there has been a dramatic shift from vertical axis to European style drum machines (horizontal axis) over the past 3 years, mainly driven by water efficiency rebates and water efficiency labelling.

For dishwashers, the energy and water consumption has continued to decrease at an amazing 4 % per annum over the study period. Dryers is a product where there has been little movement in product performance in recent times.