International benchmarking: Supplying the information for product efficiency policy makers

In the development of effective product efficiency policy, the critical element for policy makers is comprehensive, independent information. However, easily accessible, reliable information on the energy performance of products and policies is often scarce within a particular market, and rarer still if the policy maker is seeking comparisons on an international level. This article presents a method (Mapping & Benchmarking) to compare energy efficiency of products across countries, and the results for 3 products: refrigerators–freezers, washing machines and laundry driers. The results show an improvement of the efficiency over time for these products. However, part of this improvement is due to increased capacity of the products and not to lower energy consumption. Therefore policy makers should consider the development of policies based on product energy consumption and not (only) on product efficiency in order to capture the full potential of technology improvements for energy savings. Results for refrigerator–freezers suggest that in the long run both a policy strategy where minimum efficiency requirements are prominent and a policy strategy where a mandatory energy label is prominent can provide for increasing efficiencies.