Progress towards Managing Residential Electricity Demand: Impacts of Standards and Labeling for Refrigerators and Air Conditioners in India

The development of Energy Efficiency Standards and Labeling (EES&L) began in earnest in India in 2001 with the Energy Conservation Act and the establishment of the Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). The first main residential appliance to be targeted was refrigerators, soon to be followed by room air conditioners. Both of these appliances are of critical importance to India's residential electricity demand. About 15percent of Indian households own a refrigerator, and sales total about 4 million per year, but are growing. At the same time, the Indian refrigerator market has seen a strong trend towards larger and more consumptive frost-free units. Room air conditioners in India have traditionally been sold to commercial sector customers, but an increasing number are going to the residential sector. Room air conditioner sales growth in India peaked in the last few years at 20percent per year. In this paper, we perform an engineering-based analysis using data specific to Indian appliances. We evaluate costs and benefits to residential and commercial sector consumers from increased equipment costs and utility bill savings. The analysis finds that, while the BEE scheme presents net benefits to consumers, there remain opportunities for efficiency improvement that would optimize consumer benefits, according to Life Cycle Cost analysis. Due to the large and growing market for refrigerators and air conditioners in India, we forecast large impacts from the standards and labeling program as scheduled. By 2030, this program, if fully implemented would reduce Indian residential electricity consumption by 55 TWh. Overall savings through 2030 totals 385 TWh. Finally, while efficiency levels have been set for several years for refrigerators, labels and MEPS for these products remain voluntary. We therefore consider the negative impact of this delay of implementation to energy and financial savings achievable by 2030

Comparison groups on bills: Automated, personalized energy information

A program called ``Innovative Billing?? has been developed to provide individualized energy information for a mass audience?the entireresidential customer base of an electric or gas utility. Customers receive a graph on the bill that compares that customer?s consumption with othersimilar customers for the same month. The program aims to stimulate customers to make ef?ciency improvements. To group as many as severalmillion customers into small ``comparison groups??, an automated method must be developed drawing solely from the data available to the utility.This paper develops and applies methods to compare the quality of resulting comparison groups.A data base of 114,000 customers from a utility billing system was used to evaluate Innovative Billing comparison groups, comparing fouralternative criteria: house characteristics (?oor area, housing type, and heating fuel); street; meter read route; billing cycle. Also, customers wereinterviewed to see what forms of comparison graphs made most sense and led to fewest errors of interpretation. We ?nd that good qualitycomparison groups result from using street name, meter book, or multiple house characteristics. Other criteria we tested, such as entire cycle, entiremeter book, or single house characteristics such as ?oor area, resulted in poor quality comparison groups. This analysis provides a basis forchoosing comparison groups based on extensive user testing and statistical analysis. The result is a practical set of guidelines that can be used toimplement realistic, inexpensive innovative billing for the entire customer base of an electric or gas utility

Strategies for Low Carbon Growth In India: Industry and Non Residential Sectors

This report analyzed the potential for increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the non-residential building and the industrial sectors in India. The first two sections describe the research and analysis supporting the establishment of baseline energy consumption using a bottom up approach for the non residential sector and for the industry sector respectively. The third section covers the explanation of a modeling framework where GHG emissions are projected according to a baseline scenario and alternative scenarios that account for the implementation of cleaner technology

Towards a Sustainable Energy Balance: Progressive Efficiency and the Return of Energy Conservation

We argue that a primary focus on energy efficiency may not be sufficient to slow (and ultimately reverse) the growth in total energy consumption and carbon emissions. Instead, policy makers need to return to an earlier emphasis on"conservation," with energy efficiency seen as a means rather than an end in itself. We briefly review the concept of"intensive" versus"extensive" variables (i.e., energy efficiency versus energy consumption), and why attention to both consumption and efficiency is essential for effective policy in a carbon- and oil-constrained world with increasingly brittle energy markets. To start, energy indicators and policy evaluation metrics need to reflect energy consumption as well as efficiency. We introduce the concept of"progressive efficiency," with the expected or required level of efficiency varying as a function of house size, appliance capacity, or more generally, the scale of energy services. We propose introducing progressive efficiency criteria first in consumer information programs (including appliance labeling categories) and then in voluntary rating and recognition programs such as ENERGY STAR. As acceptance grows, the concept could be extended to utility rebates, tax incentives, and ultimately to mandatory codes and standards. For these and other programs, incorporating criteria for consumption as well as efficiency offers a path for energy experts, policy-makers, and the public to begin building consensus on energy policies that recognize the limits of resources and global carrying-capacity. Ultimately, it is both necessary and, we believe, possible to manage energy consumption, not just efficiency in order to achieve a sustainable energy balance. Along the way, we may find it possible to shift expectations away from perpetual growth and toward satisfaction with sufficiency

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Cold or Hot Wash: How technological choices lead to cultural change and potential increase in clothes washing energy use in China

Usage pattern of clothes washing (and clothes washers) are strongly related to local cultural practices. Such practices have led to the development of distinctive clothes washing technologies in US, Europe, and Japan. In the emerging markets such as China, several types of technologies often co-exist. Some use less energy but more water (the impeller type), and some use more energy but less water (the horizontal axis type, often with built-in water heaters). The competition between different technologies is thought to lead to better consumer choices. However, it could also lead to changes in clothes washing habits from cold to hot wash, and therefore to much higher energy use. This paper examines the standards development process in China, the largest appliance producer and market in the world, to illustrate that adoption of foreign technologies and technical standards, if not carefully calibrated to the local cultural practices, could have unintended consequences for energy use and environment

Comparison groups on bills: Automated, personalized energy information

A program called ``Innovative Billing?? has been developed to provide individualized energy information for a mass audience?the entire residential customer base of an electric or gas utility. Customers receive a graph on the bill that compares that customer?s consumption with other similar customers for the same month. The program aims to stimulate customers to make ef?ciency improvements. To group as many as several million customers into small ``comparison groups??, an automated method must be developed drawing solely from the data available to the utility. This paper develops and applies methods to compare the quality of resulting comparison groups. A data base of 114,000 customers from a utility billing system was used to evaluate Innovative Billing comparison groups, comparing four alternative criteria: house characteristics (?oor area, housing type, and heating fuel); street; meter read route; billing cycle. Also, customers were interviewed to see what forms of comparison graphs made most sense and led to fewest errors of interpretation. We ?nd that good quality comparison groups result from using street name, meter book, or multiple house characteristics. Other criteria we tested, such as entire cycle, entire meter book, or single house characteristics such as ?oor area, resulted in poor quality comparison groups. This analysis provides a basis for choosing comparison groups based on extensive user testing and statistical analysis. The result is a practical set of guidelines that can be used to implement realistic, inexpensive innovative billing for the entire customer base of an electric or gas utility