Quite a few household electrical appliances will not get energy labels before the year’s end as required as the testing process is now overloaded due to the lack of testing agencies.
Electrical equipment producers and importers said many refrigerators and air conditioners had yet to receive energy labels although it is regulated that household electrical products must carry this label from January 1, 2013.
Pham Thien Thi, marketing manager for cooling appliances at LG Electronics Vietnam Co. Ltd., said his firm started mandatory energy labeling two months ago. However, up to now, the product samples have not been tested to be labeled.
At present, it takes 3-5 days to test a refrigerator and 1-1.5 days for an air conditioner.
Energy labeling is progressing at a slow pace due to the lack of testing centers. For refrigerators and air conditioners, there is now only one agency in charge of checking energy efficiency, which is the Testing and Verification Center for Industry under the Vinacomin-Institute of Mining and Energy Mechanical Engineering in Hanoi.
“We want more testing centers in HCMC instead of only one in Hanoi, so that enterprises do not have to wait and management agencies are not overloaded,” said Thi of LG Vietnam.
Meanwhile, for electric fans, lighting devices and rice cookers, there are 2-3 testing agencies.
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has authorized a laboratory of Intertek in Thailand to test appliances imported from abroad before they are brought into Vietnam. It is expected that there will be another testing center in Thailand and one in South Korea hired to do the testing.
“However, this testing center has also faced overload as too many companies bring their goods there,” said a senior executive from the import-export department of an electrical product trading company.
Apart from the lack of testing agencies, the source said many businesses had not paid due care until the deadline was near to start energy labeling. The decision on mandatory energy labeling of household electrical products was announced a long time ago, but it was not until March and April that enterprises began labeling.
So far, only one company has finished energy labeling because it has just a few product lines.
Therefore, a source told the Daily that some businesses were intending to send a petition to relevant authorities asking for a six-month delay of energy labeling.
Energy labeling is carried out under Decision 51/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister and the Law on Energy Efficiency. Starting from January 1, 2013, household electrical appliances and industrial electrical appliances must have energy labels.
