Unlocking efficiency potential in professional appliances – ice makers, coffee machines, ovens, laundry dryers and dehumidifiers

Extended abstract 3-065-26

Ice production, baking, brewing coffee, dehumidification, and drying laundry are all energy-demanding processes for which commercial appliances are not affected by EU’s Ecodesign regulation (unlike, for example, professional refrigerators or welding equipment). At the same time, ISO and EN standards for testing energy performance already exist, providing a technical basis for policy action. This contribution presents insights from government programmes and how existing standards can be leveraged to unlock efficiency gains.

Building on these standards, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy has introduced eligibility criteria for subsidy programmes and methods to calculate electricity savings. To support these measures, a series of market studies were commissioned on professional ice makers, combination ovens & coffee machines, and dehumidifiers (Janett et al. 2025; Brandenberger, Gross & Wälchli 2026; Ganz, van Meurs & Tillenkamp 2026). The studies observe an efficiency gap: best available appliances consume approximately 20–50% less electricity than the market average. Purchasers lack comparable and publicly available product data that would enable meaningful energy performance comparisons. The absence of a Swiss supplier association for professional appliances further limits coordinated industry action.

Annual electricity consumption is estimated at around 60 GWh each for ice makers and combination ovens, 120 GWh each for coffee machines and dehumidifiers, and 480 GWh for laundry dryers. To set in context of household appliances: They lie in between the consumption of household printers (30 GWh) and household laundry dryers (600 GWh). In total, these five appliance groups account for 1 % of Switzerland’s electricity consumption. Gas or steam plays a minor role as energy source.

A different policy approach was taken in Australia, where in March 2025, product information and minimum energy requirements for ice makers were introduced. These efforts might pave the way for other countries, including the EU, to take similar measures. Several of the manufacturers operate globally and a common basis for transparent and comparable product information is already available and could be leveraged further. Government programs have a role to play in unlocking these efficiency potentials – combining financial incentives, regulatory measures and procurement guidance.

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