Effective from July 1, China’s new national minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) for room air conditioners (AC) updates energy efficiency grades and sets more stringent minimum ‘allowable values’ of energy efficiency for the units.
The regulation also requires that AC units be sold with new labels stating its efficiency grade.
The new standard brings fixed-frequency AC and variable-frequency AC into one scale, ranging from ‘Grade 5’ at the bottom to ‘Grade 1’ at the top.
The new ‘Grade 1’ sets a world-leading standard for energy efficiency, comparable to the top grades in Japan and the US. The new ‘Minimum Allowable EE Value’ for variable-frequency room AC (new ‘Grade 3’) is also comparable with the allowable values in the EU and the US.
According to 2019 market sales data from ChinaIOL.com, enforcement of the new standard is expected to eliminate around 99.8% of fixed-frequency room AC units and 53.9% of variable-frequency room AC units from the market, which will further advance China’s transition towards high efficiency variable-frequency room AC.
Successful implementation of this new standard is expected to help China achieve their 2022 goal of seeing a 30% improvement of the overall AC market, as stated in their Green Cooling Action Plan.
More information about China’s new standard can be found here (Chinese).
Cover picture: https://www.chinasmack.com/most-awesome-wall-of-air-conditioners-in-fuzhou
