Labelling of electrical appliances - An evaluation of the Energy Labelling Ordinance in Germany and resulting recommendations for energy efficiency policy

Panel: Panel 1: Assessment of Energy Efficiency Policy

Authors:
Barbara Schlomann, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI)
Wolfgang Eichhammer, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI)
Edelgard Gruber, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI)
Friedemann Stockle, GfK Marketing Services GmbH & Co

Abstract

The EU Directives on labelling of household electrical appliances were implemented in Germany by the Energy Labelling Ordinance of 30 October 1997 (First Amendment, 26 November 1999). Since 1998, most of the large household appliances have to be provided with uniform labels furnishing information on energy consumption and other product characteristics An evaluation of dealers' and manufactures' compliance with the regulation in Germany was carried out by Fraunhofer ISI and GfK on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

The main results were:

The study showed a very high degree of compliance among manufactures. The degree of compliance in the retail trade varied widely between the individual distribution channels. The highest level of compliance was observed for large scale specialists, hypermarkets, and catalogue/internet offers, the lowest level for kitchen specialists and furniture stores. Overall, compliance with the regulation was much poorer for built-in appliances than for freestanding ones.
On the other hand, the share of energy-efficient A- and B-appliances in total sales is high in Germany for most types of appliances and favourable in comparison with other EU-countries. The substantial and sustained shift from the poor to the good energy classes between 1995 and 2000 resulted in CO_2 savings of about 450 Kt.

In order to improve the level of compliance and to further promote the sales of efficient appliances, information and motivation campaigns are especially recommended which address both the retailers and the consumers. At the Federal level, the new German Energy Agency could play an important part in the planning and realisation of such actions.