Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) recently introduced the National Energy Efficiency Label for Air conditioners and electrical appliances during the Nigeria Energy Support Programme (NESP) meeting held in the nation’s capital Abuja.
Delivering the welcome address, Director General and Chief Executive SON represented by Engr. Felix Nyado (Director Operations) stated that energy is a critical component of any home or organisation with a heavy cost centre depending on activities and usage, even though this can be controllable with a systemic and sustainable energy management system.
According to him, SON is introducing the NIS ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems Standard that is acclaimed worldwide to have helped industrial facilities improve their energy performances and achieve energy cost reduction by 10% within 18 months of obtaining certification. He further remarked that the Standard can be used by industrial plants, commercial institutions or government facilities, large and small scale organizations both in public and private sector such as the manufacturing and services and private homes.
The DG also stated that SON will be providing training and third party certification on NIS ISO 50001 standard on Energy Management System that will help organizations to comply with regulatory and industry compliance on carbon emission reduction, reduce business costs, waste and defect reduction, improve competitiveness, business continuity, resilience, competiveness, attainment of business objectives and improve procurement procedures.
SON has developed 19 Minimum Energy Performance Standards for Air Conditioners (ACs) as well as the national energy efficiency label for electrical appliances and equipment. The first amongst these to be implemented is the Energy Efficiency label soon to be made mandatory for all air conditioner manufactured in Nigeria or imported into the country to have it affixed on products in conformity to the minimal requirements of the standard.
The Energy Guide Label is designed to provide information on the accurate energy consumption of a product and help consumers take informed purchasing decisions on products. The label also provides information on the level of efficiency of the product. The more energy efficient your product is, the less energy it consumes and the less money you spend paying electricity bills.
The Nigerian Energy Label Guide label for ACs is a comparative label that helps consumers to know the level of efficiency of ACs in the market. Furthermore the energy efficiency level of the product is defined by the number on the label which indicates the higher the number the more efficient the product. For example, an AC marked ‘4’ is more efficient than an AC marked ‘2’. The Label also tells the consumer the amount of energy the AC will consume per month, the cooling capacity, the brand name and the model number.
