User:Chwu9200/Energy rating label

Draft

Description

In Australia and New Zealand, an energy rating label or energy rating is a tag labeled on diverse appliances before retail sale. Consumers can compare the energy efficiency of different products through the energy rating label. It allows consumers to know the energy that a particular model needs to run. It makes consumers know the energy consumption of each product. Consumers may compare the energy efficiency between similar products, which may affect the purchasing decision. The energy rating label is a mandatory comparison label. Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency regulate it for store sales but not for online products. The label includes an energy consumption figure and a star rating for the appliance. The energy consumption figure is based on assumptions about “average usage”. It is an estimate of how much energy (in kilowatt-hours or kWh) the appliance will use over a year. The “average usage” is not accurate because the actual consumption depends on various factors, such as the environment, climate and the times that an appliance is used.

An energy star label is involved in the energy rating label. Energy star label is an endorsement label that is not regulated by the Australian Government. It is a trusted, international standard for energy efficiency. It helps protect the environment through energy efficient products.

Contents

1. History

2. Calculating the Star Rating

-Example

3. Reference

History

Appliances are a major source of electricity consumption in Australia. There is about 40% of residential greenhouse gas emitted by appliances. Many appliances currently on the market are efficient. There are also many products that need to be improved. Energy labelling is a program dedicated to create a market full of efficient products.

The aims of energy labelling are:

1. Encourage consumers to select the appliance which meets their needs with the least energy cost.

2. Enable consumers to concern the energy cost of operating an appliance and to reduce the total life cycle cost of the appliance as much as possible.

3. Encourage manufacturers to improve the energy efficiency of the products.

Energy labelling is the provision of information in an objective and easy to read form. All products are required to supply energy data when tested to the Australian Standard. Energy labelling is one of the most light-handed forms of regulation. The cost for manufacturers and consumers is minimal. It can lead to a demand on efficient appliances. That encourages suppliers to respond to market demands.

Consumers have no objective way to determine appliance operating costs without energy labeling. Manufacturers rarely declare energy consumption on a voluntary basis. Energy operating costs during an appliance's life are equal to or greater than the appliance purchase cost. A lack of information on energy consumption leads the inability of consumer to estimate the whole time appliance costs.

For some specific products, governments have determined stricter regulation policies to reduce energy consumption. Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) have been designed for refrigerators, freezers and main pressure electric water heaters. MEPS means that manufacturers, importers and retailers cannot supply products that do not meet predetermined efficiency any more. This is a high level of market intervention and accordingly there are stricter market tests and cost effectiveness criteria prior to its implementation in the program.

How energy labelling all started？

Energy efficiency labelling for appliances in Australia was first proposed by the State governments in New South Wales and Victoria in late 1970s. There was considerable resistance when the appliance industry rose in 1982:

Any program should be uniform nationally rather than risk different State approaches; and it should be voluntary instead of mandatory.

Although several states commenced mandatory labelling in the mid 1980s, a mandatory national labelling scheme was finally agreed in 1992. The legislation in the last state and territory was not passed until 2000.

How much energy do appliances in households use?

Australia's residential energy consumption is a big proportion of the national total consumption (around 40%). 7 million households have a good standard of living in 2001. Mainland Australia generated electricity with fossil fuels for the large proportion of households energy needs. There are significant greenhouse gas emissions attributed by the residential sector. (History of the labeling, 2009)

Calculating the Star Rating

Star ratings have been developed an clear way of comparing the energy efficiency for consumers. Energy efficiency is defined as the "energy service per unit of energy consumption". It is a simple way of comparing the energy efficiency among similar products.

For example, air conditioners’ efficiency is the amount of cooling capacity per unit of energy been consumed. Similar ways of measuring the energy efficiency has been developed for all appliances. Consider energy consumption alone is not helpful because a big appliance always use more energy than a small one. A measure of energy efficiency make consumers can directly compare several products.

The star rating system has a minimum of 1 star and a maximum of 6 stars. It is shown in half star increments once. Various equations have been developed for rating the least efficient products.

The best products on the market now rated 6 stars if the energy efficiency in the market never changed. Manufacturers work hard to improve their products, star ratings gradually improve over time. It was necessary to leave some room for improvement when stars were graded in 2000. As a result, the most efficient products are only graded as 3 or 4 stars. (Overview of how, 2007)

The clothes washers, clothes dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators and freezers, the general form of the star rating algorithm is as follows:

Where:

SRI is the star rating index (fractional star rating)

CEC is the comparative energy consumption (energy that appears on the energy label)

BEC is the base energy consumption – the equation for a product with an SRI of 1.0 ERF is the energy reduction factor – reduction in CEC for each additional star

Check the document for detailed star rating equations. https://web.archive.org/web/20080721204031/http://www.energyrating.gov.au/pubs/appliance-star-ratings.pdfThis document contains the specific equations for refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, clothes washers, clothes dryers and air conditioners. Equations for the old system and for the current system are provided as well.

Reference:

Background to the Energy Label (2007) Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20080721205233/http://www.energyrating.gov.au/background.html

Equipment Energy Efficiency Program (E3) (2009) Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20110601173118/http://www.energyrating.gov.au/naeeep.html

History of the labelling program in Australia (2009) Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20110601175054/http://www.energyrating.gov.au/history.html

Labeling Overview. Retrieved from: https://www.energyrating.gov.au/about/what-we-do/labelling

Overview of how are star ratings calculated? (2007) Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20080721204031/http://www.energyrating.gov.au/star.html

Top Energy Saver Award Winner (TESAW) – award-winning labelled appliances (2009) Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20110601173017/http://www.energyrating.gov.au/tesaw-main.html