Good news . . . No news . . .

On March 10^th, the Commission published a new regulation on ecodesign requirements for air conditioners and comfort fans (Commission Regulation (EU) No. 206/2012)  that significantly raises the minimum energy performance standards of air conditioners.  But one would never know it. The news has gone virtually unreported.  There is one good report, though, on the Coolproducts blog:

The paradox of air conditioners

It’s getting warmer and more people are installing air conditioners in Europe every year meaning indoors we’re getting cooler but outdoors the climate will be getting a whole lot hotter. This is unless we can control the massive increase in energy use and CO2 emissions.

Yesterday the European Commission published energy efficiency requirements on air conditioners and fans that will, thanks to ambitious member states, help save 11 TWh a year by 2020.

There is also a bonus for coolers using low global warming refrigerants. Without any regulation at all, the increased energy use could have been the same as Sweden’s annual residential electricity consumption (45 TWh).

However concerns remain about how the products are purchased. Small air coolers, as opposed to larger air conditioners, have a specific energy label which makes them appear more efficient than other alternatives. Coupled with the fact they are easier to purchase and require little installation effort, and can be purchased on a whim, there is still a big need to tighten the regulation.

Edouard Toulouse of ECOS explains the lack of notice for the new regulation by reminding that this is not fresh news because the vote actually took place last May, 2011 and for unknown reasons it took the Commission 10 months to publish.

Edouard continues:

This file was interesting because the vote by Member States clearly improved the ambition of the measure. Also the work from NGOs with support from Topten data helped increasing the ambition of the energy labelling scale (so that upper classes with pluses are not too quickly populated).

It is definitely good there is a consultation process then. EiD will be providing information soon on how this new standard for Europe compares to other regions of the world (the US, Asia, Australia).  But it is strange how quiet almost everyone has been.