Environmental NPO Starts Recruiting Monitors for Energy-Saving Fridges

The Edogawa Citizens' Network for Climate Change (ECCC), an environmental non-profit organization in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, started a project aimed at recruiting monitors for energy-saving home appliances, to further their goal of curbing global warming.

The ECCC will provide an interest-free loan to households who plan to replace their older-type refrigerator with an energy-saving one. The amount of the loan is equivalent to the estimated difference in electricity charges over the next five years. The monitor households will pay back the loan from their savings in electricity charges after replacing their refrigerator. The idea is that the purchase price of an energy-saving refrigerator will be partly covered by future savings in electric bills.

Applicants who are eligible for this project must live in or near Edogawa Ward and have an interest in energy conservation. Also they will have to pay on time and participate in the monitoring project throughout the term of the loan. The ECCC has so far recruited about 20 households.

According to a survey by the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, average electricity consumption per household in FY 2001 was 3,569 kilowatt-hours, an increase of 18 percent from the past decade. This survey also shows that the power consumed by refrigerators accounted for about 17 percent of the total. The ECCC started this project as an incentive to replace of older-type refrigerators with energy-saving ones.




Posted: 2003/09/27 11:51:50 AM
Japanese version