Walk-in cool room and freezer research project: barriers to energy efficiency. Findings and recommendations.

Author(s) : AIRAH, The Expert Group, WILKINSON P. J., BRODRIBB P.

Type of monograph: Report

Summary

AIRAH partnered with The Expert Group in an open engagement process with industry and key stakeholders to understand the key issues and barriers to energy efficiency. The research comprised initial desktop research to identify current standards, guidelines and regulations in Australia and internationally; 12 face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders; a whole of industry online survey (70 responses), email discussions (20 responses to share more in-depth information and documents), social media discussions and a face-to-face workshop with a diverse range of key stakeholders. The research found the existing WICF (walk-in cool-room and walk-in freezer) supply chain is almost completely unregulated with very minimal to no guidance for contractors and end users regarding what constitutes minimum or good practice. Supplying, installing and maintaining WICFs is complicated and the industry participants are very disconnected, with issues affecting the supply of quality WICF products and services occurring on multiple levels and with significant opportunities for improvement. There are many market failures and barriers hindering the uptake of higher efficiency equipment and contributing to energy waste, in particular information failure (i.e. supplier, contractor and end user), split incentives (i.e. where the owner of the equipment is not paying the energy bills) and least cost purchasing by small to medium enterprises (SMEs), in part driven by information failure. Contractors have little incentive to stay informed or promote new efficient technologies/solutions due to the increased complexity and capital cost of high efficiency equipment and when they are selling to end users primarily interested in least cost equipment.

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Pages: 27

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Details

  • Original title: Walk-in cool room and freezer research project: barriers to energy efficiency. Findings and recommendations.
  • Record ID : 30025138
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Regulation
  • Publication: Airah (australian institute of refrigeration, air conditioning and heating) - Australia/Australia
  • Publication date: 2018/10