Household appliances refer to all kinds of electrical products that help or replace people to do housework or improve the living environment. They have become necessities of modern family life, mainly including air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, small appliances, etc.
China's household appliances market is huge. In 2020, the output of air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines in China will be 211 million, 90.147 million and 80.419 million respectively. According to the 2021 Annual Report of China's Home Appliance Industry released by the China Home Appliance Research Institute and the National Home Appliance Industry Information Center, the annual cumulative sales of China's home appliance industry will reach 754.3 billion yuan in 2021, up 3.4% year on year. According to the data of the General Administration of Customs, the export volume of China's household appliances in 2021 will be 638.2 billion yuan, up 14.1% year on year.
The state has long guided and encouraged the development of the home appliance industry, and has successively introduced policies such as home appliances going to the countryside, trade in the old for the new, energy conservation benefits the people, and energy conservation subsidies. On January 29, 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and other ten departments, jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Further Optimizing Supply to Promote Steady Consumption Growth and Promote the Formation of a Strong Domestic Market (2019), which clearly pointed out that we should support the sales of green and smart home appliances and promote the upgrading of home appliances.
Energy saving household appliances mainly include variable frequency air conditioners, variable frequency refrigerators, variable frequency washing machines, etc. Compared with traditional fixed frequency household appliances, they have the advantages of low noise, energy saving, and longer service life. At present, sintered NdFeB permanent magnet materials and permanent magnet ferrite magnets are widely used in energy saving household appliances permanent magnet motors. The former has better energy saving effect and service life, while the latter has lower cost and higher cost performance. With the improvement of consumers' performance requirements for energy saving and noise reduction of household appliances, the market demand for energy saving household appliances has gradually increased. At the same time, as household appliances have sunk to the lower tier urban market, especially in the rural market, the industry will usher in a large product replacement period, with huge potential market space. In addition, the new energy efficiency standards GB 21455-2019 Minimum Energy Efficiency Values and Energy Efficiency Grades for Room Air Conditioners and GB 18613-2020 Minimum Energy Efficiency Values and Energy Efficiency Grades for Motors have been officially implemented on July 1, 2020 and June 1, 2021 respectively. It is expected that the penetration rate of variable frequency energy-saving household appliances will be further improved in the future.