Technical Note on Quality and Performance Metrics of Cooling Products for East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Publication Type

Report

Date Published

02/2021

Authors

Abstract

Increasing population, incomes, and urbanization—as well as a warming climate—are driving up the global stock of cooling equipment such as air conditioners (ACs) and refrigerating appliances, particularly in emerging economies with hot climates, including African countries. Because cooling energy consumption is expected to increase substantially as the stock of cooling equipment rises, improving energy efficiency will be critical to reducing energy, life cycle cost, peak load, and emissions impacts, as well as increasing access to cooling. In addition, the Montreal Protocol has evolved from focusing solely on ozone layer protection to addressing climate change mitigation as well, with the 2016 Kigali Amendment establishing a framework for reducing global hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) use. This shift presents an opportunity to link the HFC phasedown with the deployment of energy-efficient cooling equipment and thus provide benefits in terms of greenhouse gas reductions, technical and economic synergies, and reduced dumping of environmentally harmful products in developing countries. This technical note particularly supports EAC and SADC's effort to establish and improve energy-efficiency standards for room ACs by providing an overview of global market and policy trends and technical recommendations in a harmonized way across the region. 

Year of Publication

2021

Organization

Research Areas

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