As manufacturers now sell a similar range of consumer electronics and home appliances to major
markets around the world, the task of identifying a product’s energy efficiency rating has usually been
the responsibility of each country and its respective government agency. This has led to a multitude
of energy efficiency testing procedures, ratings, and certifications, resulting in disparate data being
captured on identical products. Furthermore, lack of consistent product identification criteria means
product energy performance is not easily connected to relevant information about the product such as
market availability, price or real world energy consumption.
This paper presents a new data standard for reporting energy performance and related product
information that can be adopted internationally. To inform the development of this standard, we
explore the existing energy efficiency market data for the two example products of TVs and Room Air
Conditioners. This paper discusses current/future use cases of appliance level energy efficiency data
across all stakeholders, including consumers, retailers/manufacturers, global standards organizations,
third party service providers, and regulatory agencies. It also explains the key benefits of moving to a
common international data framework for energy efficiency, such as: 1) a centralized product
information repository for comparing energy use, ratings/certifications, and pricing data 2) improved
access to relevant consumer electronics and appliance data to facilitate new policy development and
harmonization across markets 3) enablement of retailers and other third parties to embed actionable
energy efficiency information as part of the consumer experience.