The Cooling Benchmarking Study was carried out by CLASP in partnership with Econoler, Navigant, CEIS and ACEEE. It provides policy makers and energy efficiency program managers with tools and important insights for developing or updating test procedures, labels, and minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) for room air conditioners (RACs). It also enables the comparison of MEPS stringency and RAC efficiency under various test procedures and energy efficiency (EE) metrics that are currently used in major world economies.

The ability to compare RAC efficiencies and MEPS stringency across economies enables policy makers and EE program managers to better understand RAC efficiency possibilities, and can lead to technology diffusion.

The Challenge of RAC Efficiency Evaluation Across Economies

Room air conditioners (RACs) represent a major share of energy use in most countries, and often contribute significantly to electrical grid peak loads. Furthermore, the number of RACs used in developing countries is rising rapidly due to an increase in living standards and a reduction in the price of these products globally. This has resulted in a rapid increase in electricity demand and energy consumption caused by the RAC load in the commercial and residential sectors of many countries.

Though RACs impact energy demand significantly and are traded worldwide, there is a lack of assembled information on market characteristics as well as on existing MEPS and labeling schemes implemented in different economies. In addition, it is difficult to compare the performance criteria and policy measures for RACs across economies because of the differences in testing procedures and formulas used to derive seasonal efficiencies from individual laboratory tests.

Cooling Benchmarking Study:  A Tool for Policy Makers and S&L Program Developers

The study’s review of efficiency and stock trends in the RAC market in various economies provides background data to help policy makers analyze how their market compares with global trends. The study also performs an in-depth review and comparison of the testing procedures used in major economies, leading to the derivation of conversion functions between metrics used in different economies. In addition, ranking criteria allow comparison of the stringency and performance of residential and commercial RAC EE standards and labeling (S&L) programs implemented by countries around the world.

The study focused on the comparison of EE performance and policy measures for RACs with a cooling capacity of up to 19 kW used in the residential and commercial sectors of the following eight economies: Australia, China, the European Union, Japan, India, Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

The publication includes the following components:

Cooling Benchmarking Study policy factsheet:

• a high level summary including key findings for policy makers.

Cooling Benchmarking Study summary:

• a description of the project rationale and methodology, major findings of the study components, and limitations.

Cooling Benchmarking Study report:

• the complete study, including a summary of the project components, findings, and conclusions.

Mapping component:

• a detailed report that reviews market characteristics and AC products offered in different economies, determines air conditioner performance in selected countries by comparing market trends and performance, and examines existing S&L initiatives and their characteristics.

Benchmarking component:

• a detailed report that presents the analysis used to develop a series of conversion functions for metrics used in different economies around the world, as well as a comparison of the relative stringencies of different MEPS and labeling schemes.

Testing component:

• a detailed report that presents a comparison of air conditioner test results under various economies’ test procedures, and provides results from the actual testing of a limited sample of products under different test procedures.