White goods trade association AMDEA has welcomed support from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) after it proposed that the boiler scrappage scheme should be extended to domestic appliances.

AMDEA chief executive Douglas Herbison said it was heartening to see that Amdea's Time to Change campaign was being taken seriously.

Now into its third year, the initiative aims to encourage consumers to replace their old appliances with new, energy efficient models that will reduce their carbon emissions and save them money on fuel bills.

The association has also set up a Time for Change website - www.t2c.org.uk - to provide information on energy saving issues as part of its wider campaign to encourage the replacement of inefficient appliances.

Other countries have also tried to encourage consumers with different incentives. Italy introduced a tax allowance on the purchase of high-efficiency fridges. Spain and the Netherlands both implemented schemes for customer rebates and in parts of Switzerland buyers of energy-efficient refrigerators can get a bonus from their local energy supplier of as much as €150.

Following the success of the car scrappage scheme and the enthusiastic response to the announcement of the similar arrangement for boilers, AMDEA said incentives clearly make a difference to consumers' readiness to trade up to more energy-efficient goods.