GEF ＂Promoting Energy Efficient Room Air Conditioners＂ in China

Delicate oil painting and hand carved wooden frame with a plexiglass surfac. You will never believe an air conditioner can be made into an “oil painting”. Now you can see the scene in your home. You can fix the air conditioner staying indoor through remote control. The future air conditioner can even be turned on by facial recognition.

Don’t be surprised! Such technologies have been developed in the GEF “Promoting Energy Efficient Room Air Conditioners” project (herein referred to as “GEF Project”) and will soon be presented to the public. It is GEF’s mission to create a better life through technology.

Why air conditioner?

Although air conditioner enterprises and related authorities have been promoting energy efficient air conditioners actively, China is not doing quite well in this sector. Most air conditioning products have an energy efficiency level of 4 or 5 with only a few exceptions as high-efficiency products normally have a comparatively higher cost which is not quite appreciated by Chinese consumers.

GEF Project seeks to help China eliminating obstacles in the R&D, production, sale and use of energy efficient room indoor air conditioners to promote comprehensive progress in industrial technology and realize sustainable development. The project will last for five years from 2010 to 2015. The project guiding team members come from Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), Ministry of Finance (MOF), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Standardization Administration of China (SAC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP and MEP are in charge of management and organization of the project with Foreign Economic Cooperation Office of MEP as the specific executive agency.

Promotion through technology + market

As the implementation body of GEF Project, enterprises play an important role in the project. They not only participated in activities held by organizers and accomplished targets as required by the principle of cooperation, but also have developed activities by themselves and done better than the anticipated goals. So how does GEF Project benefit enterprises and the society?

Technological innovation

Guided by GEF Project’s concept of “technological innovation” and through multiple training activities, many enterprises have made great breakthroughs in technology which helps promoting the project’s progress and more importantly lays a solid foundation for the development of air conditioning products.

Take Gree as an example. Wang Xianlin, assistant director of the Household Air Conditioner Technological Department of Gree, said, “During the project implementation, Gree has completed the R&D of 71 models of new-type energy efficient room air conditioners, among which the weighted average energy efficiency ratio (EER) of fixed-frequency products stands has reached 3.51, a 31.36 percent increase from 2.26 in 2007 when the project was initially launched; the weighted average seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) of variable-frequency products has reached 4.49, 49.67 percent higher than the previous figure 3.0. This has helped saving 3,325 million kWh of electricity.

“GEF Project is more like a stage rather than a platform.” Just as stated by Wang Xianlin, it will bring about thorough changes in air conditioner enterprises. Through participation in project activities, the whole industry will compete for higher capacity in “energy efficiency”. Enterprises will seek an R&D path where they can promote energy efficiency through technological development and embrace intelligent and energy-efficient innovation.

Extension of responsibility

Many air conditioner enterprises are interacting with multiple parties along the upstream and downstream of the supply chain including manufacturers and consumers through their own advantages. While realizing project goals, they are also extending the responsibility chain.

Take TCL as an example. During the GEF Project, TCL has launched the “old for new” plan in more than 25 cities and provinces to “turn waste into wealth”. TCL Air Conditioner is one of a small group of home appliance enterprises certified to recycle and reuse components of cast-away home appliances. This plan not only saves consumers the trouble of disposing of old air conditioners, but also provides them with a subsidy of as much as a thousand yuan.

The goal of TCL’s “old for new” plan is to stick to what is being done and make it better, which is also the mission of GEF Project – promote technological development of the air conditioning industry and improve consumers’ awareness of purchasing energy-efficient products so as to realize green transformation and sustainable development of the industry.

New philosophy

We often say “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. Compared with awards of GEF Project, innovation of energy-efficient technology and new philosophy is more long-lasting and precious.

Take Midea as an example. In order to save energy while ensuring utility, Midea developed the “One night a kilowatt-hour” ECO energy-efficient technology and realized the combination of “new technology and good product”. “Until now Midea has sold 12 million sets of ECO variable-frequency air conditioners, saving 1.2 billion kWh of electricity each year. It means a half million tons of standard coal can be saved and CO2 emission can be reduced by 1.21 million tons.” Said by Wu Wenxin, president of Household Air Conditioner Technological Department of Midea in early March this year.

“One night a kilowatt-hour” is more than just a slogan. It is also a concept and action appreciated by GEF Project. Guiding our innovation with energy-efficient concept will feed more “green power” into the air conditioning industry.