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high-energy-consuming air conditioners, known as "electricity bill assassins", have been complained to be hidden in rental houses in large numbers.

recently, many consumers reported to the public interactive platform of the paper, “service pai” (https://tousu.thepaper.cn), consumer protection complaint platform, etc. that some rental platforms and second-hand landlords are still using class 5 energy-efficient air conditioners due to price and other reasons, and some landlords even use fake labels to deceive consumers. in addition, there are e-commerce sellers who conceal the energy efficiency level of air conditioners and sell class 5 energy-efficient air conditioners at higher prices.

gb 21455-2019 "energy efficiency limits and energy efficiency grades for room air conditioners" implemented in july 2020 divides the energy efficiency grades of air conditioners into 5 grades. among them, the five-grade energy efficiency air conditioners appear as market access products with the highest energy consumption. although they are cheap, they consume a lot of electricity. the standard also points out that from january 1, 2022, the annual energy efficiency (apf) and seasonal energy efficiency (seer) of heat pump room air conditioners should be greater than or equal to the energy efficiency grade 3 index value.

"in other words, the level 5 energy efficiency installed by the landlord for the tenant no longer meets the current national standards." engineering technician qiu jintan said in an interview with the media, "the market needs to digest the previous high-energy consumption products, which requires a process."

you can find five-level energy-efficient air conditioners when renting or shopping online

on june 24 this year, li jin (pseudonym) rented a house at the xiaoxiang apartment rental center located at building 4, zhongsha jinzuo, tiancheng east road, qiantang district, hangzhou. he paid a total of 3,050 yuan to the rental center, including rent, deposit, and pre-paid water and electricity fees.

after the rental contract was signed, li jin accidentally discovered during room inspection that the so-called "first-level energy efficiency air conditioner" in the room was actually a fifth-level energy efficiency air conditioner. "the landlord covered the fifth-level energy efficiency air conditioner logo with a fake first-level energy efficiency logo." li jin believed that this behavior was suspected of deliberate deception of consumers and requested a refund, but was rejected by xiaoxiang apartment.

"both the landlord and xiaoxiang apartment said they were unaware of the falsification of air conditioner energy efficiency. in addition, as a 'sub-landlord', xiaoxiang apartment requires tenants to recharge their electricity bills on a specific software instead of paying directly, and there is a great possibility that they can earn the difference in electricity bills," he said.

in response to the above dispute, on july 3, xiaoxiang apartment proposed to upgrade li jin's room or replace the original air conditioner in the room, but li jin said that he would only accept a full refund and would not accept any other solution. the two parties have not reached an agreement so far. at present, li jin has taken legal action to sue xiaoxiang apartment.

you can find five-level energy-efficient air conditioners when renting a house, and you can also buy them online.

ms. yunshan (pseudonym) bought a shenhua brand air conditioner with cooling and heating function at yirong electric appliances store on an online shopping platform on june 27, and paid 1,167.35 yuan. when purchasing, she chose the air conditioner installation service provided by the merchant, and the installation fee totaled 240 yuan.

yunshan works in hangzhou, but the air conditioner needs to be installed in her property in huzhou. yunshan plans to rent out this house. because she cannot be on site to supervise the work, she contacted the installer in advance through wechat. "i clearly asked the installer to take a photo of the air conditioner for me to inspect before installation." then, she and the installer determined the specific installation location of the air conditioner.

however, after the air conditioner arrived on july 2, the installer did not take photos as required, but waited until the air conditioner was installed before sending photos to yunshan. "he took the photos for me after i paid him, and i saw that the air conditioner had level 5 energy efficiency written on it," she said. "it was the first time i heard of a level 5 energy efficiency air conditioner."

afterwards, yunshan contacted yirong electric appliances store to request a return and refund. "the merchant's details page did not indicate the energy efficiency level of the air conditioner, and the price of the air conditioner was significantly higher than the average price of five-level energy-efficient air conditioners on the market. the merchant deliberately deceived consumers."

in response to yunshan's question, yirong electric appliances store's customer service said that the energy efficiency level of the air conditioner can be checked by clicking on the small picture on the purchase option page, which has the words "new energy efficiency level 5", and the information "energy efficiency level: level 5" can also be found on the product parameter page. this product meets the new level 5 and the old level 3 energy efficiency standards and can be sold on the market.

"unclear labeling is misleading and defrauding consumers. i don't agree with the other party's statement." on july 17, under yunshan's insistence, yirong electric appliance store agreed to return the goods and refund, and re-ordered a 1-horsepower inverter first-level energy-efficient air conditioner. "the other party is willing to bear the depreciation and return shipping costs of the air conditioner, but i have to bear the installation and disassembly costs of the original fifth-level air conditioner and the installation costs of the new first-level air conditioner." yunshan was not satisfied with this. "it was clearly installed without my knowledge, why should i pay so much money for nothing? i must get a full refund."

at present, yunshan has not reached an agreement with the merchant, and the five-level energy-efficient air conditioner she purchased is still installed in the room and has not been put into use.

the paper searched for "air conditioner energy efficiency" on the consumer protection complaint platform and found more than 500 related complaints as of august 22. a large number of consumers said that e-commerce sellers advertised their products as level 1 energy efficiency, but actually sold level 5 energy efficiency air conditioners, causing consumers to make mistakes in purchasing and installing them. some consumers said, "the product page says that the xiaomi air conditioner has level 1 energy efficiency, but i received a level 5 mijia air conditioner." "after installing it, i found that the label on the air conditioner main unit said level 5 energy efficiency, which is seriously inconsistent with the level 1 energy efficiency in the product title."

in this regard, wu fenghu, a lawyer at beijing jingshi (shanghai) law firm, believes that according to article 6 of the "energy efficiency label management measures", "energy-using products listed in the "product catalog of the people's republic of china for energy efficiency labeling" shall display the corresponding energy efficiency label in a prominent position on the main page of the product information display when they are traded online." if a merchant deliberately conceals the energy efficiency of the product and misleads consumers into buying a high-efficiency air conditioner as a low-efficiency air conditioner, consumers can request a return. if a merchant deliberately conceals the energy efficiency level of the air conditioner and sells a five-level energy-efficient air conditioner at a higher price, consumers have the right to demand that the merchant directly compensate for their losses on the grounds of fraud.

wu fenghu consumers have the right and obligation to inspect the goods when they sign for them. "if the merchant installs the goods without waiting for the consumer to sign for them, the corresponding removal costs should be borne by the merchant; conversely, if the consumer fails to inspect the goods for personal reasons, the relevant costs shall be borne by the merchant and the consumer in proportion to their fault."

how big is the difference between different energy efficiency levels?

how did the five-level energy-efficient air conditioner become an "electricity bill assassin"?

the paper checked gb21455-2019 "energy efficiency limits and energy efficiency grades for room air conditioners" and found that the energy efficiency grade standard for air conditioners is based on the product's measured annual energy consumption efficiency (apf), which is the ratio of the sum of the annual cooling and heating capacity to the power consumption in the cooling and heating seasons. in simple terms, the higher the consumption efficiency value, the better the air conditioner's cooling or heating effect, and the more energy-saving it is.

the above standards divide energy efficiency levels into 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 levels, and stipulate the minimum apf value for each level. when the rated cooling capacity is less than 4,500 watts, the minimum consumption efficiency of a level 1 energy efficiency air conditioner must reach 5; the minimum consumption efficiency of a level 5 energy efficiency air conditioner must reach 3.3. the lower the level, the higher the consumption.

regarding the current regulations on air conditioner energy efficiency levels, qiu jintan, an engineering technician at samsung windless central air conditioner, said that level 5 is the lowest energy efficiency standard, and the actual energy efficiency ratio is 2.50-2.79. "level 5 energy efficiency air conditioners should be discontinued on june 1, 2024, but some small businesses may still have some level 5 energy efficiency air conditioners in circulation on the market because they have inventory in the factory."

how big is the difference between different energy efficiency levels?

in reality, the actual power consumption of air conditioners is far more complicated than imagined. whether it is the room area, the thermal insulation performance of building materials, the real-time outdoor temperature changes, and the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor, all will affect the actual cooling capacity of the air conditioner and thus determine the power consumption.

based on this, some media tried to make a calculation under ideal conditions. the results showed that under the same usage conditions, for a 15-square-meter room, assuming the cooling demand is 3500w, a first-level energy-efficient air conditioner with an energy efficiency ratio of 5 consumes about 700 watts, about 0.7 kwh per hour; while a fifth-level energy-efficient air conditioner with an energy efficiency ratio of 3.3 consumes about 1.06 kwh per hour. converted into electricity bills, under the same operating conditions, a first-level energy-efficient air conditioner costs 100 yuan in electricity, while a fifth-level energy-efficient air conditioner costs 151.52 yuan, which is more than half more expensive.

the price of five-level energy-efficient air conditioners is much lower than that of one-level energy-efficient air conditioners

so, why are high-energy-consuming five-level energy-efficient air conditioners so prevalent in rental properties?

the paper found on an e-commerce platform that under the same brand, the prices of air conditioners with different energy efficiency levels vary greatly. generally speaking, the average price of a five-level energy efficiency air conditioner does not exceed 1,000 yuan, while the price of a one-level energy efficiency air conditioner is basically 2,000 yuan or even higher.

"level 5 energy-saving air conditioners are cheap to buy, and landlords don't have to pay for electricity, so they don't feel bad." some netizens reported that some landlords even make money by collecting electricity bills themselves. "the government stipulates that the electricity price in residential areas is 0.61 yuan/kwh, but landlords conceal the actual type of electricity used from tenants and require tenants to pay directly at 1.3 yuan/kwh. in this way, landlords can get more than double the original electricity bill."

it is worth noting that according to the legal daily, high-energy-consuming air conditioners in the second-hand market often reappear on e-commerce platforms with new masks and eventually flow into the market. as for the "identity cards" that can double the value of air conditioners - year labels and energy efficiency grades, "almost all of them can be bought."

wang fushan, deputy secretary-general of the china electronic commerce association and founder of consumer protection, said that the complaints consumer protection has received about level 5 energy-efficient air conditioners are mainly from tenants in hangzhou. "there are two reasons why landlords choose this type of air conditioner: first, the cost of level 5 energy-efficient air conditioners is much lower than that of level 1 energy-efficient air conditioners, and the price is only half of the latter; second, because level 5 energy-efficient air conditioners consume more electricity, landlords also increase their income by charging tenants electricity prices higher than the local civil standards. this practice is more common in rental houses without independent electricity meters or second-hand landlords, which ultimately leads to higher financial pressure on tenants."

regarding the situation where some landlords set their own electricity prices or privately connect electricity meters to charge, guo qing, a partner of beijing anli law firm, analyzed that when encountering such behavior, consumers can choose to complain. article 44 of the electricity law stipulates: no unit or individual is allowed to add other fees to the electricity bill. "the landlord set the fee per kilowatt-hour in the rental contract, which exceeds the national residential electricity price. this behavior violates the provisions of the electricity law, and thus this part of the contract is invalid. in this regard, the tenant has the right to refuse to pay this part of the fee and can complain to the relevant department."

lawyer wu fenghu suggested that tenants should inspect the house before renting it, take inventory of the facilities and equipment in the house, and clearly stipulate important matters such as equipment model and performance in the lease contract. if the relevant facilities and equipment are found to be not up to standard, they can negotiate with the landlord to replace the relevant facilities and equipment or refuse to rent. if the landlord charges the tenant electricity in the name of "commercial electricity" to earn the difference in electricity charges, the tenant can ask the landlord to refund the extra amount.