New energy requirements for home appliances

摘要

After failing to reach agreement at earlier meetings, member state experts finally agreed upon mandatory energy performance requirements for televisions, refrigerators, freezers and washing machines. Meeting on 31 March, the regulatory committee also agreed upon a new format for the energy label, including an upgraded energy labelling system for televisions and other large electrical home appliances. The European Commission estimates the measures to lead to annual reductions of EU electricity consumption of 51 terawatt hours by 2020. This entails 43 TWh from TVs, six TWh from refrigerators and freezers, and two TWh from washing machines.