Home appliance retailers and suppliers have promised to promote
sales of energy-efficient products and to highlight the country's
energy-efficiency label system this summer.
Wang Ruohong, vice-director of the china energy label center
under the China National Institute of Standardization, said
yesterday that promoting energy-efficient home appliances had
become an urgent task. He was speaking at a ceremony to launch the
2007 National Promotion Campaign of Energy-efficient Home
Appliances.
Wang estimated that sales of air conditioners would hit 25
million units this year, bringing tremendous pressure to bear on
the nation's already tight electricity supply.
Sixteen domestic and foreign-funded home appliance
manufacturers, including Haier, Gree, Frestech and Emerson Climate
Technologies, have joined together in a federation to promote
energy-efficient products and the energy-efficiency label system,
Wang said.
The authorities issued the Management Method of Energy
Efficiency Label in August 2004. It took effect on March 1,
2005.
Under the regulation, the government draws up a list of products
that have the potential to become more energy efficient.
Manufacturers of the products on the list must include an
energy-efficiency label on their products' packaging. The label
must also appear on their manuals.
The China Energy Label has five grades of energy efficiency.
Domestic refrigerators and air conditioners were the first two
categories of products to meet the standards prescribed by the
regulation.
Wang said the National Development and Reform Commission was
planning to bring 20 categories of products under the system by
2010.
The categories include home appliances, industrial illumination
products, automobiles and office buildings.
Statistics show that a combined 3.7 billion kilowatt-hours worth
of electricity have been saved since the energy-efficiency label
first appeared in 2005.
Wang predicted that if the use of the labels became common
practice, the country would save 2,657 billion kilowatt-hours of
electricity (an equivalent of 1.29 billion tons of standard coal)
by 2020.
Sun Chengzhi, a manager of Suning Appliances, a leading retailer
of home appliances and one of the sponsors of the campaign, said
the company had adopted a series of measures to encourage people to
buy energy-efficient home appliances at its chain stores this
summer.
The measures include teaching people about the energy-efficiency
labels, giving discounts to customers who buy energy-efficient
appliances and awarding bonuses to clerks who do an exceptionally
good job at selling energy-efficient products.
However, Sun said that the comparatively higher price of
energy-efficient home appliances had become an obstacle to
increasing their market share.
For example, the price of an energy-efficient air conditioner is
about 800 yuan to 1,000 yuan (US$100-130) higher than a standard-
one.
Sun said one of the campaign's goals is to increase the market
share of energy-efficient air-conditioners to 40 percent of the
overall air-conditioner market this year from last year's 30
percent.
"We have a lot of work to do to raise people's awareness of
energy saving," Sun said.
Cong Haibo, general manger in charge of air conditioners at
Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings Company's Beijing subsidiary,
said the company had increased its investment in developing
energy-efficient appliances in recent years.
"An energy-efficient air conditioner will save you more money in
the long run, although it is more expensive when you buy it," Cong
said.
(China Daily April 19, 2007)