An article in Channel NewsAsia.

From 1 September 2014, energy labels will be revised to carry estimated annual energy cost and energy consumption information.

This will help inform consumers of the life-cycle cost of an appliance before purchasing it.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) is enhancing its Mandatory Energy Labelling Scheme (MELS), and extending the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) to include more appliances.

To better differentiate more efficient models from the less efficient ones and reflect the improvements in the energy efficiencies of appliances in today’s market, the energy rating system will be recalibrated.

Under the new rating system, the most efficient models will be awarded 5 ticks.

1-tick products will make up the lowest efficiency band.

The “no-ticks” band will be removed as some consumers were confused when they came across labels without any ticks.

NEA said the energy label design will also be updated to boost its readability.

To retain consumers’ familiarity of the previous energy label, however, the rounded-top, rating descriptor and rating scale design will be retained.

The improvements to MELS and MEPS aim to encourage more households to choose energy efficient appliances with low life-cycle costs, and in turn, help them reduce their utilities bills and cut greenhouse gas emissions in the long run.

In April 2014, the MELS will be extended to televisions, making them the first appliance under the MELS umbrella to carry the revised labels.

NEA said MELS could help heighten consumers’ awareness of the energy performance of such televisions and assist them in their purchasing decisions.

This is especially so as consumers may be attracted to buy large screen high-performance televisions.

NEA estimates that Singapore could potentially save between S$12.2 million and S$19.7 million annually on energy savings if everyone switched from low to medium or high efficiency televisions.

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