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AMDEA has been arguing for some years that consumers need direct incentives to buy more energy efficient domestic appliances. We were therefore very pleased to see support for this idea from the British Retail Consortium whose letter to the Chancellor in August proposed that energy efficient appliances should be zero rated for VAT with a possible scrappage scheme for white goods.
The readers of IER will be aware of the success of the EU's energy labelling scheme in driving technological improvements and the ongoing arguments about how to revise the label design to accommodate the advances that have been made in recent years. In parallel the Energy-using Products Directive is expanding the range of consumer goods that will carry such labels in future.
However, while some consumers are willing to spend extra to get a more efficient model, for most people the main factor influencing their decision remains the upfront cost.
And it's not just about prompting buyers to choose a more energy efficient model. How do you persuade somebody to buy a new, more energy efficient washing machine while their old one is still working?
Proving the point
We know that there are over 15.4 million fridges, freezers and washing machines over 10 years old still in use in homes in the UK. The average life of a fridge-freezer is 17.5 years. This year the winner of AMDEA's Time to Change competition to find the UK's oldest working fridge was 60 years old.
The durability of these appliances is admirable but their carbon footprint is not. We know that current models use so much less energy than those manufactured even 10 years ago.
For its case study in Cheltenham AMDEA monitored the electricity used by a family's 30 year old fridge-freezer. Then we took out the old fridge, installed a new A++ rated model and monitored this for another three weeks. The new fridge used only 20% of the energy that the old one did. That's a saving of 529 kg of CO2 a year and £137 off the family's electricity bill for this year alone. This compares with the Energy Savings Trust's recommendation that installing double glazing could save you £135 a year.
AMDEA's Time to Change campaign (www.t2c.org.uk) has been running for two years now and we were delighted to see the British Retail Consortium also arguing that households need more tangible encouragement to go green. In their submission to the Chancellor, A Balanced Approach to Sustainable Recovery, BRC argued that consumers were deterred by the higher up front costs of energy efficient products in spite of significant savings in energy costs over the lifetime of the product.
Incentives work
Other European countries have already tried different incentives. Italy introduced a tax allowance on the purchase of high-efficiency fridges. Spain and the Netherlands both implemented schemes for customer rebates and in parts of Switzerland buyers of A++ refrigerators can get a bonus from their local energy supplier of as much as 150 Euros.
In America, after the success of its car scrappage scheme this year, the US government launched a new package for white goods which will allow states to give rebates of up to $200 for each purchase of an energy efficient appliance.
In the UK you can get a rebate on a new car and a grant for installing loft insulation or even solar panels. If we are to replace those 15.4 million aged domestic appliances with new, energy efficient ones we need to offer the consumer more than just an energy label.
