Comparing Product Lifetime Extensions by Enhancing Consumers’ Expected Product Lifetime Among Different Durable Products

Product lifetime extension is a major strategy in a circular economy. Circular economy policies encourage the improvement of product designs for longer use. In addition, such improvements increase the product lifetime expected by the consumers, which is called the expected product lifetime. Since physical restrictions on product lifetime extension will be mitigated along with circular economy policies, the practical potential of product lifetime extension through circular economy policies depends on how much can the increase contribute to the product lifetime extension. However, apart from air conditioners, limited analyses have been conducted on the extended effects of the expected product lifetime. This study estimates the effects of the expected product lifetimes of refrigerators and compares them with those of air conditioners. The results show that although the increased expected product lifetime of refrigerators could extend their actual product lifetime, the degree of extension was smaller than air conditioners. These findings indicate that although product design improvements are moderately effective in extending the product lifetime of refrigerators, other measures/policies are required to obtain a degree of product lifetime extension comparable to air conditioners.