Natural Resources Canada
April 30, 1998
BACKGROUNDER
What is EnerGuide Month?
What is EnerGuide Month?
EnerGuide Month is a promotion in May 1998 to encourage major household
appliance consumers to make energy-wise choices when buying appliances. This
in-store promotion will show appliance shoppers how to use the EnerGuide label
to calculate energy and cost savings.
Who is behind EnerGuide Month?
EnerGuide Month is an initiative of the EnerGuide Program at Natural
Resources Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency.
Which stores are featuring EnerGuide Month?
Eaton's, Future Shop, Sears and The Brick are the retail partners for this
national promotion.
They will distribute the bilingual promotional information to all of their
appliance departments all across Canada. Over 250 stores will participate in
EnerGuide Month.
What are the main elements of the promotion?
There are two main elements to the EnerGuide Month promotion.
1. In-store shopping guides (see samples in this kit):
- These entertaining "Buying with EnerGuide" information sheets
bring facts, humour and sound advice together to provide the consumer with a
useful guide to buying energy- efficient appliances.
- They focus on three categories: refrigerator, dishwasher and clothes
washer.
- Pads of these tear-away information sheets will be placed on
refrigerators, dishwashers and clothes washers throughout the appliance
departments of each partner retail store.
- They will be available in all Eaton's, Future Shop, Sears and The Brick
appliance departments.
- The information sheets include buying tips, a shopping checklist,
appliance trivia and history, energy-related facts and definitions, and most
importantly, a formula to help shoppers calculate the energy consumption of the
appliance they are planning to buy.
2. EnerGuide Month sales tool:
- Every major appliance salesperson at participating retail outlets has
received a "Selling with EnerGuide" sales tool. This information
piece is designed to help retail salespeople educate their customers about
energy efficiency and energy cost savings.
- By providing consumers with the facts, salespeople across Canada can help
consumers save energy and money.
What is EnerGuide?
EnerGuide is a registered program of Natural Resources Canada. It has two
goals:
- to protect the environment by reducing energy use in Canada; and
- to help consumers spend less money on electricity.
The EnerGuide was launched in 1978 in the wake of the so-called "energy
crisis" to ensure that consumers got fair and objective information on the
energy consumption of appliances. Test standards were developed to establish a
level playing field for all manufacturers and to ensure that claims of energy
efficiency were factual and comparable.
In 1992, Parliament passed the Energy Efficiency Act as a key
element of Canada's national environmental action plan. Under the Act, minimum
energy-efficiency standards were established for a number of types of
energy-using equipment, including appliances that are imported into Canada or
traded interprovincially. The EnerGuide label for major household appliances
and room air conditioners makes these standards visible to Canadian consumers.
What about the EnerGuide label?
Canada was one of the first countries in the world to adopt a labelling
program for appliances. Many other countries around the world are following the
Canadian example.
What does the EnerGuide label tell me?
The EnerGuide label helps the consumer understand:
- how much energy an appliance uses per year, measured in kilowatt-hours
(kWh);
- how it compares to other models in terms of energy consumption; and
- how much consumers can expect to spend on energy costs with a new
appliance.
What's a kilowatt-hour (kWh)?
The main feature of the EnerGuide label for household appliances is the
energy consumption rating in the middle of the label. This number is expressed
in kilowatt-hours. As the shopping guide explains, a kilowatt-hour is a unit of
energy, and can be compared to the amount of energy equal to light up ten 100-
watt light bulbs for an hour. The lower the number on the label, the less
energy the appliance consumes and the less it will cost to operate the
appliance.
Does the EnerGuide label mean that an appliance is automatically
energy-efficient?
No. In fact, most major household appliances in Canada must meet a minimum
standard of energy efficiency. However, many Canadians continue to believe that
only energy-efficient appliances bear the EnerGuide label. The label, which
must be on the appliances by law, gives a yearly energy consumption and shows a
scale that compares the energy efficiency of the appliance to other similar
models available on the marketplace during a given year. This helps consumers
choose the most energy-efficient model that meets their needs.
Today, the EnerGuide label is not only for appliances. Room air
conditioners have been labelled since 1995, and EnerGuide ratings are now found
in the brochures for most gas and propane furnaces, heat pumps and central air
conditioners.
What's down the road for EnerGuide?
What's in store for EnerGuide in the future? Lots. The newest additions to
Natural Resources Canada's EnerGuide Program are voluntary labels for vehicles
and houses. This year, the EnerGuide label was introduced for new cars, vans
and light-duty trucks, providing city and highway fuel consumption ratings and
the estimated annual fuel cost for the vehicle.
The EnerGuide for Houses Program has also been launched. An energy
assessment is carried out by a qualified evaluator using Natural Resources
Canada's EnerGuide for Houses Guidelines, who provides a detailed evaluation
report to the homeowner and an efficiency rating on an EnerGuide label.
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