Electricity savings from residential appliance standards in Sweden

This paper discusses the energy savings that could be obtained in Sweden by instituting specific standards for five appliances: Refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, clothes washers, and clothes dryers. At the present time, Sweden has no minimum energy efficiency standards for residential appliances. This paper discusses the energy savings that could be obtained by instituting specific standards for five product types (refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, clothes washers, and dryers) starting in 1995. A methodology similar to that used in analyses for the European Community was employed in this study. In the Swedish study, we used appliance test data developed by the Swedish consumer agency, Konsument Verket, to estimate new unit energy consumption for each product type. Shipments, saturations, energy use, and demographic data were input to a spreadsheet model that sums energy consumption for each product type over the period 1990--2010. Both a base case and a standards case scenario are simulated for each of the five appliance types. It was found that electricity use for these five products can be reduced by 12% over the time period from 1990--2010. Most of the energy savings come from instituting efficiency standards for refrigerators and freezers. For each product class type, the impact on manufacturer offerings is discussed. For example, for simple refrigerators, eleven 1990 models meet the 1995 standard and six models meet the 2000 standard out of a total of 63 models.