Revised energy norms to push up air-conditioner, refrigerator prices

Buying the most energy efficient AC or a fridge will cost 10-15% more this year with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency introducing a stricter five-star ranking system for electrical appliances. But, you will be able to recover the initial expense in a couple of years by saving on your monthly power bill.

Updated on: Jan 4, 2014, 23:48:41 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Buying the most energy efficient air-conditioner or a refrigerator will cost 10-15% more this year with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) introducing a stricter five-star ranking system for electrical appliances. But, you will be able to recover the initial expense in a couple of years by saving on your monthly power bill.

The BEE gives star ranking to appliances depending on efficiency with one star being least efficient and five-star most efficient.

BEE’s director general, Ajay Mathur, said the new system was a two-star jump for refrigerators. Meaning that under the new rankings, a three-star fridge will save 36% more power compared to a fridge ranked three-star under the old system.

Fridges and ACs ranked five-star earlier will now be slapped with a three or four-star ranking.

Savings in case of ACs will be slightly less as the BEE pushed only for a one star jump because of technological constraints. For consumers, buying a new five-star rated AC as compared to earlier top-labeled ones will mean a saving of 10% in the monthly power bill.

With the market for fridges and ACs surging at an annual rate of 6-12.5%, especially in rural areas, the new system will ensure companies adopt better technologies to produce more energy-efficient electrical appliances.

The BEE has estimated that the first phase of labeling on electrical appliances has resulted in saving of 10,000 MW of power -- almost double of Delhi’s daily power consumption -- and expects these savings to double in the next five years. Fridges and ACs account for nearly 70% of total energy savings from the star ranking system of appliances.

“We will also make labeling mandatory for televisions, tubelights and geysers this year. It was voluntary for these appliances so far,” Mathur said.

The BEE has mandated under the Energy Conservation Act to bring all electrical appliances under a labeling mechanism to comply with national energy efficiency code and was among the first among emerging economies to introduce energy efficiency for appliances.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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