History

From 1 October 2001 it has been mandatory for air conditioners manufactured in or imported into Australia to meet the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS)levels specified in the relevant Australian Standards. When you buy and use an air conditioner which meets or exceeds these standards you can be sure you are not unnecessarily contributing to greenhouse emissions.

Latest Developments

As at 9 February 2012

The Government was finalising project plans for the introduction of legislation to come into effect from 2015 to cover all airconditioning systems. This involves the development of 17 codes to cover insulation, chillers, close control units, airconditioners, evaporative coolers, spot coolers, heat pumps etc. By May or June consultants should be appointed to do market  research and develop Regulatory Impact Statements. .

The next round of MEPS

AREMA sub-committee is examining the inclusion of multi head systems (muti-splits) in MEPS. These systems are making up a larger proportion of the airconditioning market but are not currently included in MEPS because there is no relevant test standard for them. With the recent publication of an ISO standard Australia could adopt that standard and include multihead systems in the MEPS framework. The AREA sub-committee has agreed with the DEWHA consultant developing the standard on modifications needed for the local implementation of the ISO standard.