China plans to label household air-conditioners and
refrigerators starting Tuesday, according to the China National
Institute of Standardization (CNIS).
The institute is authorized to collect information on energy
efficiency required for the labels.
The labels, which provide energy consumption and efficiency
information of each product, aim at improving the public awareness
of energy conservation and encourage home appliance manufacturers
to produce energy-saving products, according to Lin Ling, a senior
engineer in charge of the program from CNIS.
The labels will be classified into five categories to indicate
different levels of energy efficiency. Products below the fifth
level will be banned from the market.
Household refrigerators and air-conditioner manufacturers are
now submitting energy efficiency information of their products to
the institute.
More than 20 brands in the household air-conditioner and
refrigerator market including Midea, Electrolux and Haier have
completed their submissions.
Sources from the institute predicted tagging energy labels on
the two home appliances is expected to save 18 billion kilowatt
hours of electricity by 2010, and 87 billion kilowatt hours by
2020.
Cost for high energy-efficient products will be high, however,
and will likely result in a price jump for these products.
"If an air-conditioner manufacturer upgrades its product from
level three to level one in accordance with the energy label
standard, a cost increase of 300 yuan (US$36) to 500 yuan (US$60)
for each product is expected," said Cheng Jianhong, senior engineer
from CNIS, "and consumers will have to afford a 700 yuan (US$84) to
1,000 yuan (US$120) price hike if they want to buy the
products."
"But the averaged price level of home appliances will remain
stable," added Cheng.
Lin said that in order to ensure the credibility of the
information on the energy label, a set of punishment measures will
be adopted for any irresponsible information submitted.
"For example, if the submitted information is found not to
reflect the truth, the manufacturers concerned are supposed to be
heavily fined," said Lin.
State-level administrations including the National Development
and Reform Commission (NDRC), the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ), the Certification
and Accreditation Administration, will manage the energy label
system, and local government bodies are to supervise its
implementation in the production and marketing chains, said program
organizers.
NDRC and the State quality supervision body jointly issued a
management document on the energy efficiency label system in
August, which marked the establishment of the system in the
country.
The state authorized CNIS to collect product energy efficiency
information last month.
According to sources from the institute, household
air-conditioners and refrigerators were selected as the first batch
of products to implement the energy label system, because they are
widely used in China and their manufacturing is relatively
standardized.
The next batch of products to be labeled are expected to include
TV sets, electric fans and electric irons, according to engineers
in charge of the program.
"We are now working on the energy efficiency standards to
regulate the energy information for those products," said Lin.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), up to 37
countries and regions including the European Union (EU), the United
States and Brazil, have adopted the energy label system to
effectively encourage the use of energy-saving products.
In EU, energy consumption of household refrigerators had
plummeted by 16 per cent from 1992 to 2000, and the figure is
expected to reach 21 per cent by 2020 since the implementation of
the energy label system, said statistics from the standardization
institute.
(China Daily February 26, 2005)