Energy Consumption of Major Household Appliances Shipped in Canada, Summary Report – Trends for 1990–2007

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Highlights

Figure 1 depicts the cumulative energy savings due to the above factors, measured in petajoules, of the six major household appliances from 1992 to 2007.

Figure 2 illustrates the significant increase in the penetration rate of ENERGY STAR^® qualified appliances since they began appearing on the market in early 1999. By 2007, 76.2 percent of all dishwashers, 58.4 percent of all clothes washers and 44.3 percent of all refrigerators shipped in Canada were ENERGY STAR qualified products. Shipments of ENERGY STAR dishwashers decreased slightly once again in 2007, due to the increase in the stringency of the ENERGY STAR specification of dishwashers, which came into effect in January 2007.

Figure 3 compares the average annual unit energy consumption (UEC) of the six major household appliances in 1990 and 2007. The largest decrease in average annual UEC was in clothes washers, which experienced a 76 percent reduction, followed by dishwashers at 65 percent.

Other notable findings include the following:

• In 1990, a new set of the six major appliances for the home used an average of 5789 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy. In 2007, that number dropped to an average of 2944 kWh – almost half the 1990 consumption level.
  
  
• Total energy savings for the six major appliances shipped in 2007 were calculated at 6.56 petajoules (PJ) (or 1.82 billion kWh). Consumers saved an estimated $173 million in energy costs in 2007, based on an approximate national average of 9.5 cents/kWh.⁴
  
  
• The cumulative energy savings for all major household appliances between 1992 and 2007 were 41.69 PJ (or 11.56 billion kWh) – the equivalent of one year’s energy for approximately 374 100 households.
  
  
• Among major appliances, clothes washers produced the largest cumulative energy savings, 14.32 PJ (or 3.98 billion kWh), from 1992 to 2007.

For a description of the database preparation process conducted by Electro-Federation Canada and the methodology used by the analysts to summarize the data, refer to the Office of Energy Efficiency Web site: oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/statistics/cama08/appendixa.cfm.

The definitions of the various types of appliances can be found at oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/statistics/cama08/appendixb.cfm.

See Appendix A in this summary report for detailed tables for the study period.

⁴ Source: Energy Use Data Handbook table that can be found on the OEE web site at oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/statistics/neud/dpa/tableshandbook2/res_00_18_e_4.cfm.

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