China

The revised ‘Room Air Conditioner Energy Efficiency Restricted Value and Energy Efficiency Grade' Chinese standard was recently promulgated. The new standard has raised the base grade of air conditioner energy efficiency from 5 (2.6 energy efficiency ratio) to 2 (3.2 energy efficiency ratio) and has reduced the number of grades from 5 to 3. The new standard was enforced as of March 2009 and will eliminate on a compulsory basis nearly 90% of air conditioners that have high energy consumption.