ENERGY STAR BASICS
WHAT ENERGY STAR MEANS AND HOW IT CAN SAVE YOU MONEY
Save with efficient appliances
You’ve seen the blue logo as you wandered the aisles of the home improvement store. But what does the Energy Star label really mean? It’s a program of the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency. It was established to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants by making it easy for consumers to identify and purchase energy-efficient products.
Since 1992, the Energy Star program has saved consumers more than $450 billion and more than 3.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to the EPA.
PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS
The EPA establishes a set of Energy Star specifications for each category of products. These specifications are based on a set of principles. • Categories must contribute significant energy savings across the United States. • Certified products must deliver features and performance consumers want. • If a certified product costs more than its less-efficient counterpart, consumers must be able to recover their investment through saved energy costs in a reasonable amount of time. • Efficiency can be achieved by readily available, non-proprietary means. • Energy consumption and performance can be measured and verified. • The Energy Star label would differentiate products and be visible for consumers.
Depending on market factors and advancing technology, Energy Star specifications may be revised from time to time. This means that a newer model of your Energy Star-certified dishwasher may not carry the label.
ENERGY STAR DOES MORE
Energy Star is not just a label on a refrigerator. The Energy Star program also certifies homes. The EPA says that nearly 90 percent of the nation’s largest homebuilders build Energy Star-certified homes. These homes, the program says, are at least 10 percent more efficient than homes built to code.
Energy Star helps in commercial spaces, too. Business can turn to the program’s guides to managing energy expenses and commercial buildings. If a business saves on the electricity bill, that’s savings it could pass on to the consumer.