Total residential electricity consumption in China has increased more than 10% per year since 2007. This is mainly due to wider use of electric equipment. The Chinese government wishes to improve products’ energy efficiency. There are already 48 MEPS in place for residential and industrial products and the China Energy Label covers 27 products. Several rebate programs have been put into place to promote high efficiency products. 

The objective of the study by Top10 and CLASP is to analyse the current market status of efficient products, calculate potential energy savings and provide policy recommendations. 

Nine major products were selected for the analysis: fixed and variable speed air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, TVs, rice cookers, induction cookers, monitors and copiers. 

Detailed market data was gathered from a number of sources. From this large amount of data, the analysis showed that: 

• The model shares of products under each energy efficiency tier vary greatly among products and technologies. 
• The relationship between energy efficiency and capacity varies according to products, but the absolute energy consumption increases with the capacity for all the products. 
• MEPS and energy label thresholds influence pricing strategies of energy efficient products.