ELSEVIER Energy and Buildings 26 ( 1997) l-3 Introduction to special issue devoted to appliance and lighting standards James E. McMahon *, Isaac Turiel ’ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Universiry of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Received 10 December 1996; accepted 11 December 1996 1. Why a special issue? Appliance and lighting standards have more than a twenty- year history, originating (in reaction to oil price shocks) in Europe and the US, and then in many regions of the world. In spite of the social, economic and environmental signifi- cance of appliance and lighting standards, the extensive his- tory of these standards is largely available in voluminous legislative and technical documents, with only an occasional journal article or conference paper accessible to a wider audi- ence. In this special issue, we are excited to bring together an international collection of summary documentation from a range of perspectives, presented by some of the key partici- pants in this history. The authors share lessons to date in the areas of engineering, economics and policy analysis. 2. What are appliance standards? Appliance standards are a set of procedures and regulations which prescribe the energy performance of manufactured products, sometimes prohibiting the manufacture of products less energy efficient than the minimum standard. The term ‘standard’ encompasses two possible meanings. We separate the two uses of that term as follows: (i) a well-defined pro- tocol (or laboratory test procedure) by which one can obtain a relative ranking of energy efficiency among alternative technological designs providing an energy-consuming serv- ice; and (ii) a norm (target or mandatory limit) of energy efficiency or energy performance based upon the protocol. 3. Why are appliance standards important? Appliances-here broadly defined to include heating, cool- ing and lighting, as well as refrigerators, clothes washers and * Corresponding author. ’ We wish to thank Stephen Wiel and Alan Meier for their review of this introduction and all of the articles in this special issue. We incorporated many of their suggestions. Published by Elsevier Science S.A. PIISO378-7788(97)00016-9 other household equipment-account for most of the energy consumption in buildings, and buildings account for much of electricity and natural gas consumption. In 1990, buildings (residential and services/commercial) used about 41% of electricity generated world-wide, and 37% of total primary energy [ 1] . In industrialized countries, energy consumption by appliances is already large, and in developing countries, such energy consumption is growing rapidly. The increase in electricity demand in developing countries, significantly from the use of appliances in buildings, is anticipated to require an average annual investment for new generation and distribu- tion capacity from 1995 to 2010 of $97 billion [ 21. Energy cost is not the only economic consideration. About $67 billion was spent in 1992 on ‘white goods’ (refrigerators, freezers, cooking appliances, microwave ovens, clothes washers, clothes dryers and dishwashers), and the expendi- tures are projected to grow to $77 billion per year by 2000 [3]. The world air-conditioning and refrigeration market, valued at $40-45 billion, is expected to grow to $50 billion by 2005 [ 41. Appliance standards have significant economic impact, directly affecting manufacturers, large populations of consumers and-indirectly-energy suppliers. Appliance standards have influenced manufacturers to invest more in designs using less energy, which in turn reduces the need for new energy supplies. For electricity, in particular, appliance standards can reduce the need for new capacity, in part because air conditioners exert disproportional influence on peak power requirements. Not only have appliance energy standards already resulted in significant economic benefits, the potential for further sav- ings is huge. Several estimates have been made of the energy savings potential from efficiency improvements in buildings worldwide. A study commissioned by the WorldEnergy Con- gress (WEC) based on IPCC scenarios shows potential reductions in energy demand in buildings in the OECD coun- tries of 6-16% and in countries with economies in transition and developing countries of 2544% when comparing aggressive efficiency scenarios to business-as-usual scenarios [ 51. Much of this savings potential is from appliances, equip- ment, and lighting and much of that is achievable through energy standards.