Federal government increases subsidies for refrigeration equipment because of Corona
Refrigeration: Due to Corona's economic impact on the commercial sector, the federal government's ProKilowatt incentive program is making higher incentive contributions available.
Refrigerators are absolutely indispensable in restaurant and hotel kitchens. But also in bakeries, supermarkets or in kiosks everything revolves around the cooling of fresh produce. "Unfortunately, there are a lot of inefficient refrigerators and freezers in use," knows Maike Hepp from Topten. "They cause high electricity costs for the businesses, and in addition, the storage refrigerators, freezers or vending machines are operated with refrigerants that are harmful to the climate."
Often, owners don't even know what costs they will incur over the life of a device when they buy it. The fact is: the operating costs can exceed the purchase price many times over. Example: an average supermarket freezer will cost CHF 8000 more over its eight-year lifetime due to high energy consumption, compared to an efficient appliance. These can be easily found on the online portal Topten.
Federal government pays up to 40 percent of the new price
The Corona crisis has hit the catering, bakery or butchery business hard. The ProKilowatt subsidy program of the Federal Office of Energy has therefore increased the subsidies for storage or sales refrigeration units from the previous 25 percent to up to 40 percent of the purchase price of a new unit. Eligible for subsidies are plug-in units with the highest energy efficiency and a climate-friendly refrigerant. The table showing the subsidized appliances and the maximum subsidies can be found at topten.ch/trade can be viewed. The maximum total subsidy per end customer is now CHF 130,000 instead of CHF 100,000 (for example for large distributors).
However, these higher subsidies only apply to purchases implemented after 06/15/20. Funding will continue to be provided for ready-to-plug-in, highly efficient catering and sales refrigeration equipment using natural, climate-friendly refrigerants such as R600a or R290. The program will initially run until the end of 2020, with an immediate follow-up program being sought. Further information and application forms are available at www.topten.ch/gewerbe available.
From March 2021, the energy label for sales refrigeration equipment is mandatory!
When planning purchases, it should be urgently noted that from March 2021 the energy label will also be mandatory for supermarket refrigerators, beverage coolers, ice cream chests and refrigerated vending machines. Until now, it was only mandatory for storage appliances. The label shows the efficiency class of the appliances at a glance, making comparison much easier, with "A" being the best. Very inefficient appliances may no longer be imported and sold from March 2021.
This is what the new EU/Switzerland label for sales refrigerators will look like from March 2021. "B" is the best category. (Source: Commission Regulation EU 2019/2018 / Fogalrefrigeration)
