Do residential air-conditioning rebates miss the mark?

Book · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:55542

Stickney, B; Shepard, M

The rebates utilities provide for residential central air conditioners and heat pumps to encourage improved cooling efficiency may inadvertently reward higher peak demand in many cases. This problem could be avoided by using both efficiency and peak performance to determine eligibility for rebates. Such changes to incentive formulas would better align the utilities` DSM programs with the dual goals of improved efficiency and peak demand reduction. Improved peak performance would be especially advantageous for sunbelt utilities whose residential cooling load is highly coincident with the summer peak. Air conditioning has been called the utilities` ``load from hell,`` because it is intermittent, unpredictable, and is the largest contributor to summer peak demand, requiring massive investments in power generation and delivery capacity. It is no wonder then that more DSM programs are targeted at space cooling than at any other end use. Ironically, however, all of the residential rebate programs the authors examined for central air conditioners and heat pumps are based on the seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER), which provides a valuable measure of seasonal energy efficiency but is not a good indicator of peak demand. Residential central air conditioning incentive programs for eight major utilities are based exclusively on SEER and most ratchet up the incentive levels with increasing SEER. None include the measure for peak demand for residential cooling equipment, which is the so-called energy efficiency ratio, or EER.

• OSTI ID: 55542
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
AIR CONDITIONERS
CALCULATION METHODS
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
HEAT PUMPS
IMPLEMENTATION
LOAD MANAGEMENT
PEAK LOAD
POWER DEMAND
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
SEASONAL VARIATIONS