By He Zhenhong & Wu Li

It is said that it will be stipulated in the new energy efficiency standard for air-conditioners to be issued in March 2009 that the threshold norm for air-conditioners in terms of their energy efficiency will be improved to Grade 2 from the present Grade 5; that is, air conditioning products with energy efficiency level below Grade 2 cannot be sold in the market. In the current National Standard for the Energy Efficiency of Air Conditioning Equipment, the energy efficiency level has been classified into five grades with Grade 5 as the bottom level to enter into the market and Grade 1 as top level. Recently, the reporters have paid visits to household appliances shopping malls in Beijing with the intention to see whether the air conditioning industry has got well prepared for the market access threshold.

This year, in the area where air-conditioners are sold in many household appliances shopping malls of Beijing, most of air conditioner brands tend to make conspicuous such slogan as "Energy saving, less electricity, and low noise". The reporters saw that although air-conditioner products of many air conditioner brands with energy efficiency of Grade 4 and 5 still accounted for over 80% in the area where air-conditioners are sold in the outlets of Beijing Dazhong Electronics Co., Ltd.; what was different from that in previous years was that those air-conditioners with a low energy efficiency level were mostly at sale and of discount models while there appeared certain products and frequency inverter air conditioners with a Grade 1 or Grade 2 energy efficiency level; "energy-saving" was already used as a primary mark shown on the product introduction on respective air-conditioner products.

"Energy-saving, healthy, and stylish" has been recognized as a trend for air conditioners in 2008 by a great majority of air-conditioner manufacturers. Among those three factors, "energy-saving" is the focus of various major manufacturers, to which they have given full play. Various major manufacturers made every possible efforts concerning "energy-saving" and continuously launched their own energy-saving knockout products embodied their latest technologies.

Wang Qi, Manager of the Air Conditioner Department of Beijing Dazhong Electronics Co., Ltd., told us that Gree mainly focused on the marketing of products meeting Grade 1 and 2 energy efficiency standards in 2008, among which their "Energy-saving Prince" series were most favored by consumers for its energy efficiency level had reached Grade 1, making it possible to cut down the energy consumption by 10%-20% if compared to ordinary air conditioners; Hai'er launched its Hai'er 08 series equipped with the AIP ionized purification technology, which could reach the national Grade 1 energy efficiency standard; the "refrigeration and heating throttling" technology was adopted on Kelon's "Double Efficiency" series, thus it became possible for the refrigerating and heating systems to conduct cycling respectively and make both refrigeration and heating highly efficient; Chigo's "Bei Ao Zhi Guang" series of air-conditioners could realize a Grade 1 energy efficiency when being started up and consume only 1 Watt power in idling mode, which makes it the first type of air conditioners that can realize saving energy consumption both when being operating and in idling mode. Such a model filled up a blank in the domestic market, and result in even better energy-saving effects. In idling mode, such air-conditioners will only consume 30 percent that consumed by a common air conditioner.

As the representative of household appliance chain distributers in Beijing, Beijing Dazhong Electronics Co., Ltd. promised as early as in March 2008 that it would actively respond to the government's appeal for saving energy and reducing emission, check on market access, filter out those products with relatively higher energy consumption for consumers, launch the "energy consumption access threshold" for its own outlets, gradually eliminate air conditioners with a Grade 4 or 5 energy efficiency level, make greater efforts to promote and disseminate air conditioners with a Grade 1 or Grade 2 energy efficiency level and make more inputs on the promotion of such products, and guide consumers to choose green air-conditioners with a higher energy efficiency level.

Data drawn from relevant investigations showed that in a survey on the product elements cared about by Chinese urban consumers expecting to buy air conditioners, 85.3% chose energy saving. The reporters learned at the outlets of Beijing Dazhong Electronics Co., Ltd. that the price gap between air conditioner series of the same brand with a Grade 1 energy efficiency level and those of the same brand with a Grade 5 energy efficiency level was around RMB2, 000 yuan; but the price gap between air conditioners with respective neighboring energy efficiency levels was only RMB200 yuan to RMB400 yuan.

Wang Qi said that some of consumers still took the price as the foundation for them when purchasing an air-conditioner since products with a Grade 5 energy efficiency level were sold at relatively lower prices and certain discount models with a Grade 5 energy efficiency level even only cost RMB1,000 yuan or so; but another portion of customers tended to be more rational, they sought for a higher performance- price ratio and cared more about the energy saving effect so they would prefer to buy air conditioners with an energy efficiency level above Grade 4 or frequency inverter air-conditioners.

Although prices of energy efficient air conditioners are higher, consumers still prefer products with a higher energy efficiency level from the long-term perspective. At Hai'er counter, several customers stood there to look at the promotional handouts that read "Hai'er Air-conditioners, a solution to save energy more effectively" in their hold. The reporters posed some questions to some of them at random, and Ms. Zhou told the reporter, pointing to one model with a Grade 3 energy efficiency level, "I would prefer the energy-saving models with low noise, the higher the energy efficiency level is, the more likely I would buy. I would rather choose among those more expensive ones, the price gap between products of the same model but with respective grades of energy efficiency level is only around RMB300 yuan, but the electricity fees would be cut down by around RMB100 yuan (if an air-conditioner with a higher energy efficiency level were bought).

In the future, the models with a low energy efficiency level will be gradually driven out of the market, so I will choose among air-conditioners with a higher energy efficiency level." Mr. Wang said, "When buying an air-conditioner, I will consider energy efficiency first but the price is another important consideration as the price gap between respective air-conditioners with a Grade 1 energy efficiency level and a Grade 5 energy efficiency level is obvious. With RMB2, 000 yuan, we can buy a discount model additionally. If the price gap is not that obvious, I would prefer the ones with a relatively higher energy efficiency level. But now, I would choose a model with a Grade 3 or Grade 4 energy efficiency level."

As shown by incomplete statistics, there were about 10 million sets of air conditioners with a Grade 4 or Grade 5 energy efficiency level in stock in 2007. In the peak sales period of this year, air-conditioners with a low energy efficiency level will still be the mainstream models sold in the market. As for the "three-grade jump" in terms of energy efficiency level, air-conditioner manufacturers have got well prepared. They will try to sell those products with a low energy efficiency level at stock as soon as possible and turn to produce those models with higher energy efficiency level. On one hand, the market access threshold set by the national energy efficiency standard was made even higher; on the other hand, consumers expect air-conditioners with a high energy efficiency level but a low price. How to balance those two requirements is a new problem for the air conditioner industry to face.

Experts in the industry pointed out that energy-saving air conditioners had become a trend. The improvement of energy efficiency standard would bring both challenges and opportunities for the air-conditioner industry. In short term, it may bring pains; but air-conditioner manufacturers will have to make adjustments to the industrial structure, optimize the structure of products, and improve their technological contents, which will not only be propitious to the sustainable development of the air conditioner industry as a whole but also conduce to the realization of the national objectives for energy saving and emission reduction.