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Tracking Appliance Energy Efficiency Trends in Australia

Panel: Panel 2: Incentives and instruments to achive greater

Author:
Lloyd Harrington, Energy Efficient Strategies, Australia

Abstract

Appliance retail sales data has been matched with detailed performance information in Australia from 1993 to 1995 to enable an analysis of sales weighted appliance characteristics.

Australia has had a mandatory appliance energy labelling program in place since 1986 and this now covers major household appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, clothes washers, clothes dryers and room air conditioners. The program has a very high profile - nearly 90% of prospective or recent appliance purchasers can recall detailed information from the labels. The label is clear, distinct and easy to understand and is regarded by many analysts as one of the better international examples. While there has been ample process evaluation of the program since its implementation over 10 years ago (GWA 1991a & GFCV 1991), until recently there has been little concrete data regarding the impact that the program has had on residential energy consumption.

Since 1993, the Federal Government in Australia has been obtaining detailed retail sales data of residential appliances, both nationally and at a state level, from a commercial monitoring service. Individual model sales and actual retail price have been obtained for a large percentage of the appliance market, typically 75% to 90% of all retail sales for each appliance group. Model sales data, combined with the detailed information on the national appliance energy labelling registers in Australia, has allowed the tracking of appliance performance and energy efficiency trends by appliance type. An overview of the energy consumption and energy service trends (and therefore energy efficiency) for each appliance group are examined over the period where data are available.

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