13 Refrigerators and freezers, including chillers, display cabinets and vending machines (Lot 12 and 13)

Environmental Screening and Evaluation of Energy-using Products (EuP) Final Report

13.1 Background
13.2 Environmental screening based on the Ecoinvent database
13.3 Ecolabel requirements
13.4 Technology and market trends
13.5 Conclusion

13.1 Background

Refrigerators and freezers, also known as “cold appliances”, have been the first and the most studied EuP in the European Union with the goal to reduce their energy consumption.

In this Memorandum, the two product groups commercial and residential refrigerators and freezers are discussed together in spite of that they constitute two different studies in the EuP scheme.

13.2 Environmental screening based on the Ecoinvent database

As there are no data in the Ecoinvent database for this theme, an environmental screening has not been performed for this product group.

13.3 Ecolabel requirements

The major European policy measures already in place are the mandatory energy labelling (Directive 94/2/EC), including the Amended Directive of 2003 (2003/66/EC) to introduce the A+ and A++ classes [EU 2003], and the CECED unilateral agreement [CEC2005].

For domestic refrigerators the energy efficiency index (EEI) is defined in the Directive and the EEI was set at 102 for the average model on the market in year 1992, as reported by the GEA study.

The main focus of the European Ecolabel criteria is put on to:

Energy consumption
The refrigerants in the refrigerating circuit and foaming agents used for the insulation of the appliance shall have no ozone depletion potential.
Reduction of global warming potential of refrigerants and foaming agents
Life time extension by the availability of compatible replacement parts and service shall be guaranteed for 12 years from the time that production ceases.
The manufacturer shall offer take-back for recycling.

Recently, the European Association of Household Appliance Manufacturers (CECED) issued in October 2002 a Voluntary Commitment on reducing energy consumption of household refrigerators, freezers and their combinations.

The CECED unilateral agreement contains the following commitments. Participating manufacturers have stopped producing for, and importing in, the Community Market electric compressor based household refrigerating appliances having an energy efficiency index 75 (corresponding to energy label class C) and above (except for chest freezers), and for electric compressor based chest freezers having an energy efficiency index 90 (corresponding to energy label class D) and above, by 31st December 2004.

The agreement also includes a ”fleet target”: Each participant will reduce its own production - weighted average energy efficiency index- to a value of 55 for production and importation into the EU market by the year 2006. [Arn2006]

13.4 Technology and market trends

The efficiency improvement trend continued for refrigerators and freezers. For domestic refrigerators the energy efficiency index (EEI) was set at 102 for the average model on the market in year 1992, as reported by the GEA study. Among the combined refrigerator-freezer, the best models on the market in the year 2005 were models rated A++ with an EEI below 30; as example a model with 215 fresh food volume and 60 l of freezer (4*) volume has an annual consumption of 137,0 kWh/year . For the same size a C class model just meeting the efficiency requirements would use 522 kWh/year (a factor four energy reduction!). There are still a limited number of models in A++ class (EEI below 30), and still difficult to find them in shops, while there is already several models in A+ class.

The graph from Figure 13.1 shows the improvement of the EEI from year 1992 to 2005. On average the efficiency improvement over 13 years has been a remarkable 40%.

Figure 13.1 Evolution of the EEI (new model sale weighted average) for cold appliances (Source:[Ber2007])

Figure 13.1 Evolution of the EEI (new model sale weighted average) for cold appliances (Source:[Ber2007])

The sale data for 2005 for cold appliances show that in some markets (and in particular in the Netherlands and Germany) the A+ appliances are starting to have an important market share (14.8 % market share of A+ class in Germany), while at European level the share of A class has reached 60 % of the sales, with 9% in A+ class. In all countries the share of A and A+ appliances has strongly increased in 2005 compared with previous years. Large differences still exist between countries due to different national and regional policies and programmes. The lowest share of sales of A class appliances is in the west European countries covered by the GfK panel 2004 is in Spain (36.1%), and the highest share in the Netherlands (71.1% in A class plus 19.2% in A+ class) , this remarkable high share is due in particular to incentives for very high efficient appliances. Also worth noticing is that the share of A class appliances in new refrigerators sales is higher in the New Member States (again comparing only among the countries covered by the GfK panel). The strongest progress in the period 2002 to 2005 happened in the UK mainly due to the Energy Efficiency Commitment^[6] under which about 1 million efficient cold appliances have been sold per year

Click here to see: Figure 13.2 Sales of cold appliances: Comparison for the 5 large countries of sales in 2002 and2005 by energy class (Source: GfK, [GfK 2004], [Sor2005], from [Ber2007])

13.5 Conclusion

13.5.1 Environmental impact in a system and life-cycle perspective

The energy consumption during use is absolutely the most important environmental impact for this product group. Due to the generally relative long life-time of the products within this product group, the manufacturing of the products mean relative less.

The environmental aspects of the refrigerants are important. Especially the global warming impacts of HFC and PFC are important, but also other environmental aspects of the refrigerants might be important (e.g. toxicity).

Waste handling of old refrigerators is very important. When buying a new A+ / A++ appliance the consumer should get a credit for returning the old appliance in order to ensure that it disappears from the market to prevent that the consumers continue to use it for example at home in their garage.

Reliable return systems have to be set up in order to prevent the old appliances from being shipped illegally to emerging markets like India, Pakistan or China where treatment standards are negligible. Access to the above scheme should be made dependent on supplying an old appliance.

13.5.2 Environmental perspective from new technologies

New refrigerators have much higher energy efficiency than do older and the authors suggest that it might not be a good idea to promote extended life-time for this product group.

But the number of refrigerators per household is only 1.15 in Germany in 2003 and 1.36 in Denmark in 2004 indicating that rapid replacement could become a real problem. The environmental benefit of buying new A+ or A++ appliances disappears if the old appliances are not forced out of use.

13.5.3 Regulation

The European Ecolabel for refrigerators ended 31 May 2008 and new regulations must be put into force. [EC2004]

[6] Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) runs in 3-year cycles from 2002 to 2011. EEC-1 program required that all gas and electricity suppliers with 15,000 or more domestic customers deliver a certain quantity of ‘fuel standardised energy benefits’ by encouraging or assisting customers to take energy-efficiency measures in their homes.