Photo of trainees

      Room air conditioners are one of the biggest and most wide-ranging, end-use products with great potential for energy efficiency, and are attracting increasing regional, national, and global attention. Technological upgrades, product quality control, and preparation work need to be dealt with in a better way in order to aid the room air conditioner manufacturing industry, particularly the prompt understanding and acknowledgment of the latest developments regarding the labeling of international standards for room air conditioners by research and quality inspection personnel, and ultimately to ensure that technical barriers to trade are eradicated as much as possible. The Energy Efficiency Labeling Management Center for the China National Institute of Standardization held a “training session for energy efficiency standards of room air conditioners” on August 23, 2011, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. A total of 63 participants from companies in the testing agency industry participated in the training.

Talks given by European experts

        Zhang Shaojun, assistant director of the Energy Efficiency Labeling Management Center for the China National Institute of Standardization; Wu Ping, assistant director of the U.S. Energy Foundation (EF) energy efficiency project; Dr. Zeng Lei of The Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP) and Wang Ruhong, vice president of the Environmental and Resources Branch of this institute, all gave speeches at the training session.

 Talks given by Chinese experts

        Mr. Andre Pierrot, from the CEIS laboratory in Spain, who drafted the EU standards for air conditioning, gave a detailed explanation about the new EU regulation (EU) No626/2011, issued on July 6, 2011, and the requirements of market supervision. Mr. Chris Stone, American Chief Technical Advisor for the Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP) introduced the latest developments in energy efficiency standards and labeling in North America, with a particular focus on measures for the supervision of air conditioning administration in America; Cheng Jianhong, a researcher at the Environmental and Resource Standardization Branch of the Chinese National Institute of Standardization, explained the latest situation in China regarding energy efficiency standards, talking about market conditions and the next planned tasks for standardization working groups.

Talks given by American experts

        The group also arranged for Mr. Victor Loomis, senior engineer at Intertek’s ETL to introduce the key technologies and procedures developed for room air conditioner testing equipment. Mr. Andre Pierrot explained in detail the EU’s point of view about the degree of uncertainty associated with using the enthalpy difference method and calorimeter method for testing the cooling capacity of air conditioners; Representatives from Zhuhai Geli Electric Appliance Co., Ltd., which was named an outstanding business in the “2010 list of China's energy-saving products business leaders", and Qingdao Haier Air Conditioner Co., presented their latest energy-saving air conditioning technology.
        This training in energy efficiency standardization was a resounding success for the members of the special committee of China’s small and medium energy-saving companies participating in this activity. The Energy Efficiency Labeling Management Center is now to gradually expand to incorporate other similar products so as to provide a better service for member units.