AC, fridge labels to specify energy consumption

NEW DELHI: The days of misleading claims from appliance manufacturers on the electricity consumption level in their products for the consumers is coming to an end.
The Energy Conservation Act, enacted by the government in October last year and made operational since March ’03, requires mandatory labelling and setting of minimum standard of consumption of electricity on equipment and appliances.
Airconditioners and refrigerators have been included in the first phase of the programme and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), an entity under the power ministry, coordinating the implementation of the Act, has held preliminary discussions with appliance manufacturers on the framework proposed to be adopted.
When implemented this will bring an uniformity in product comparisons on the basis of running cost of an appliance. So a consumer would be able to compare different models of different brands based on the energy consumption label which can be a star mark or a rating number.
In its first meeting BEE, headed by Shashi Shekhar, director-general, along with members of CII home appliance committee and the Refrigeration and Airconditioning Manufacturers Association, decided that test procedure as described in BIS-1476 should be used by all manufacturers for their products.
On the issue as to who will test the products for labelling, the manufacturers were of the opinion that at present there are no independent testing labs for the standards to be adopted as BIS approved labs were outdated.