The continuous high temperature weather makes "cooling off the heat" an unavoidable keyword in people's lives. Many people feel that "this life is given by the air conditioner", but compared with the air conditioner itself, the soaring monthly electricity bill makes the young renters feel the coolness. Author | Edited by Cao Yinan | Titled by Lu Yiming | "Light of the Firefly" On July 10, the World Meteorological Organization reported that the world had its hottest week on record. Previously, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States released measurement data. In just 4 days, the global average temperature has hit a new high three times, namely 17.01°C on July 3, 17.18°C on July 4, and 17.23°C on July 6. On June 8 this year, the agency announced the occurrence of El Niño globally, noting that it "may create new temperature records in some areas." In my country, four regional high temperature processes have occurred since the end of May this year. A total of 301 national meteorological stations across the country have reached the extreme event standard in daily maximum temperature. Among them, 110 meteorological stations including Qiaojia (44.4°C) and Yuanmou (43°C) in Yunnan, Tanghekou (41.8°C) in Beijing, and Langfang (41.6°C) in Hebei have reached or exceeded historical extremes. The Central Meteorological Observatory predicts that in mid-July, there will be more high-temperature weather above 35°C in Jiangnan and South China, and the number of high-temperature days will generally be 7-9 days. Among them, parts of Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian can reach 38-40°C. (Picture/China Meteorological Administration) The only thing that can be compared with the temperature is probably the hot air conditioner market. Not only have Europeans, who have always lived through the summer with their mouths, started to buy air conditioners, even in countries with a high installation rate of air conditioners, the sales volume of air conditioners has doubled, especially in some famous "stove areas". For example, the sales volume of air conditioners in Sichuan last week increased by 180.22% year-on-year, and the sales volume in Chongqing increased by 100.49%. As summer has begun in various places, the topic of "a five-level energy-efficiency air conditioner is installed in a rented house" has become a hot topic. A Zhejiang netizen posted a video complaining that the most energy-consuming five-level energy-efficiency air conditioner was installed in his rented house, which aroused the sympathy of netizens from the north and the south. Some people ridiculed that this kind of air conditioner is the most energy-efficient, because "when you see it, your heart will be half cold." Behind the ridicule, there are countless heartaches. (Picture/Screenshot of Weibo video) In this summer when the air-conditioned room feels like the earth is going to explode, while consumers are still picking and choosing among various high-tech air conditioners, renters have already quietly mastered the core technology for cooling the heat—high energy-consuming air conditioners. "All the energy-intensive air conditioners in the country have been bought by the landlords." Migrating from one rental house to another is the normal state of migrant workers. After seeing all kinds of bad decorations by the landlord, it seems that only the high-efficiency air conditioner that will never be absent can make people find a constant sense of order in the flowing life. Among them, the five-level energy-efficient air conditioner relies on "the energy efficiency of a bowl of pig's knuckle rice every night" to achieve a cooling effect that "makes people cool just by looking at it". However, the "prestige" five-level energy-efficient air conditioner is actually in a marginal position in the entire air-conditioning market. (Picture/Screenshot of Weibo) As early as 2009, under the influence of policies such as home appliances going to the countryside, energy saving and benefiting the people, and trade-in policies, mainstream air-conditioning manufacturers such as Gree, Midea, and Haier successively announced that they would completely stop the production of four- and five-level high-energy-efficiency air conditioners. The second-tier brand manufacturers represented by Chigo, Oaks, and Galanz even announced in a high-profile manner in 2009 that they would completely eliminate air conditioners with energy efficiency levels 3, 4, and 5 at the price of level 2 energy efficiency. This means that the five-level energy-efficiency air conditioners on the market today are either from unsalable inventory many years ago, or they are miscellaneous machines that are not even considered second-tier brands. In other words, it is not easy to buy five-level energy-efficient air conditioners on regular platforms. Since it is an air conditioner that is already on the verge of being eliminated, the most direct reason why the landlord still "searches for him thousands of times" is of course the price. (Picture/Screenshot from Taobao) In the rental options of ordinary people, apart from the stereotyped long-term rental apartments, they are directly rented by the landlord, but most of the housing sources directly rented by the landlord are basically decorated in a rough style, and the configuration of household appliances is mainly "can be turned on". According to the current market price, the price of an energy-saving air conditioner with first-class energy efficiency is basically more than 3,000 yuan.In contrast, because the energy efficiency of five-level energy-efficiency air conditioners is relatively low, the compressors, fans, heat exchangers and other components they use do not need to be of high performance and quality, so the manufacturing cost is relatively low, often only a few hundred yuan can win a five-level energy-efficiency air conditioner. As more and more migrant workers pay attention to the energy efficiency level of air conditioners, in order not to affect the rental, there is even a supporting service of "helping the landlord replace the skin of the five-level energy-efficiency air conditioner". If the brand-new air conditioner in the rental house looks like a tractor, there is no doubt that you must have encountered a "facelift air conditioner". In the flea market, you can buy a new national standard low-energy efficiency label and brand label for only a few tens of dollars. For air conditioners that have been yellowed for a long time, you can also provide one-stop refurbishment services such as grinding, polishing, and sealing. (Picture / Tuchong Creative) With a bright and beautiful shell and a lingering core, on a five-level energy-efficient air conditioner, the workers understand the metaphor of life. Five-level energy-efficiency air conditioners, who rated them? In China, the energy efficiency level of air conditioners is divided by the "Energy Efficiency Allowable Values and Energy Efficiency Levels of Room Air Conditioners" issued by the National Standardization Management Committee. The first edition was proposed in 1989 and has been revised six times so far. At present, except for special occasions such as communication power supplies and computer rooms, the energy efficiency standards for air conditioners in most scenarios refer to GB 21455-2019, which was promulgated in 2019 and officially implemented on July 1, 2020. This set of standards unifies the long-term energy consumption calculation system of frequency conversion and fixed frequency air conditioners. Fixed-frequency air conditioners use the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) as the classification standard. The EER refers to the ratio of the cooling capacity of the air conditioner to the input power under rated conditions, and the unit is W/W. The higher the energy efficiency ratio, the more energy-efficient the air conditioner is, and the less electricity required to achieve the same cooling effect. According to the energy efficiency ratio, fixed-frequency air conditioners are divided into 3 levels. The energy efficiency rating of inverter air conditioners is based on the cooling season energy consumption efficiency (SEER), which refers to the ratio of the sum of the heat removed from the room to the sum of the electricity consumed during the cooling season during the cooling operation of the air conditioner. for 5 levels. This is why under this hot search, some people may misunderstand that an air conditioner with a fifth-level energy efficiency must be a bad old air conditioner. Inverter air conditioner energy efficiency stickers. (Picture/Xiaohongshu) According to the new national standard, air conditioners are no longer divided into fixed frequency and variable frequency, but are divided into heat pump air conditioners and single-cooling air conditioners. In simple terms, one can cool and heat, and the other can only cool. Among them, the energy efficiency classification of heat pump air conditioners is changed to be based on the annual energy consumption efficiency (APF), that is, the ratio of the sum of the heat removed from the indoor air and the heat sent into the room by the air conditioner during the cooling season and heating season to the sum of the electricity consumed during the same period. Cooling-only air conditioners continue to use SEER as the classification standard. At the same time, both types of air conditioners are divided into five levels, of which the first level energy efficiency standard is newly formulated and has reached the international leading level; the second level and third level standards correspond to the first level of frequency conversion and the second level in the old version, and the fourth level corresponds to some frequency conversion level three and fixed frequency level one in the current market; the fifth level corresponds to some fixed frequency level two products on the current market. (Picture/Tu Chong Creative) Although it was also reported that by January 2022, the five-level energy efficiency system will revert to a three-level energy efficiency system, and air conditioners with four or five energy efficiency levels will be completely eliminated, but this policy has not yet been implemented. At least for now, the sales of five-level energy-efficient air conditioners are still in line with national standards. Why is your air conditioner electricity bill so expensive? It is understandable to be greedy for the price of a five-level energy-efficiency air conditioner, but it is not too troublesome to change the skin and insist on installing a five-level energy-efficiency air conditioner in the rental house. The landlord's abacus is not so simple. The rated cooling capacity of air conditioners used in most households is less than 4500W. According to the new national standard, the energy efficiency difference between the first and fifth stages of heat pump air conditioners is 1.7, and that of single-cooled air conditioners is 2.1. If it is not used for a long time, the energy efficiency ratio of the first-level energy-efficiency air conditioner and the fifth-level energy-efficiency air conditioner is not too large to be unacceptable.(Picture/Picture Chong Creative) Assuming that the air conditioners in the rental house all meet the five-level energy efficiency system of the new national standard, then take a 1-horsepower (0.75kW) air conditioner as an example, a room of 10 square meters, install a 1-level energy-efficient air conditioner, the electricity consumption for one hour is about 2500W cooling capacity, divided by the SEER of 5.8, the power consumption is about 430W; a 1-horsepower air conditioner with five-level energy efficiency, its power consumption for one hour is 675W. If it is used for 8 hours a day and 30 days a month, the monthly electricity consumption of a single cooling air conditioner is only 58.8 kilowatt-hours. In terms of residential electricity consumption, although the specific prices in different regions are slightly different, the three-tiered electricity price is implemented as a whole. Taking Zhejiang Province, the source of this dispute, as an example, the first category is for users whose annual electricity consumption does not exceed 2,760 kWh, and the electricity fee is 0.538 yuan/kWh; Even according to the highest gear, the average monthly price difference is about 50 yuan. Of course, the above is just an ideal state. In real rental housing, there are not only a large number of high-efficiency miscellaneous and even unlicensed air conditioners that do not meet the new national standards, but even the electricity bill is not according to the national standard, but according to the “landlord’s standard”. In the domestic rental market, it is almost the default rule for landlords to pay electricity bills. Anyone who has rented a house knows that, not to mention the electricity bill of 50 cents per unit, if you can pay the electricity fee of 80 cents per unit, you have to praise the landlord, "You are so good." (Picture/"New Life of the Wind") The electricity price of 1.5 yuan per degree, or even 2 yuan per degree, has become the norm in the rental market. Since the price can be set privately, the five-level energy-efficient air conditioner can not only save money for the landlord, but also make money. This is why some long-term tenants want to pay for the low-efficiency air conditioner and the landlord is unwilling. In the eyes of the landlord, the air conditioner is hanging on the wall, which is like a mining machine that explodes gold coins every day. This phenomenon is more common in southern first-tier cities with hot and long summers and a large number of migrants. If you have rented a house in the urban villages of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, you can probably experience the predicament that you need to turn on the air conditioner for more than half of the year, and the monthly electricity bill is almost the same as half a month’s rent. Just on May 18 this year, the Guangzhou Market Supervision and Administration Bureau also issued a "Reminder on the Implementation of the "Guangzhou Electricity Supply and Utilization Regulations" to Standardize Electricity Charges" specifically because of the chaos of high electricity prices, requiring relevant operators, rental property owners and subletters and other electricity charge entities to immediately conduct self-examination and self-correction, and fully correct their own irregular charging behaviors before June 30 this year. (Photo/Guangzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau official website) However, for the current rental model, regulating electricity bills can only serve as a dissuasion at best. Landlords either turn a blind eye, or recover the price difference under the name of "loss fee" and "community fee" after adjusting the electricity price. Some landlords bluntly said that it is no problem to reduce the electricity fee, but suddenly feel that the rent should be increased. The five-level energy-efficiency air conditioner reflects the immaturity of the housing rental market, leaving room for rent-seeking for landlords. For example, Hong Kong, next to Guangzhou, separates water and electricity bills from the rent. The energy is turned on by the tenants themselves, and the bills will be sent to the corresponding address on a regular basis without going through the landlord. However, in an increasingly hot climate, young people can only willingly accept the kidnapping of "air-conditioning assassins", hand over the electricity bill to the landlord, and keep the coolness for themselves. 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