Will the Most Efficient Products Please Stand Up?

...and it looks as though they have.

December 12, 2011 - Last summer, I wrote about the U.S. EPA's new ENERGY STAR "Most Efficient" program, recognizing the best ENERGY STAR compliant products on the market. (See blog: When "Energy Efficient" Isn't Enough.) In the time since the program launched, nearly 150 products from 16 manufacturers have been recognized.

Last month, ENERGY STAR announced that it will be extending the Most Efficient pilot program through 2012 (originally scheduled to end at the end of this year). What this means is that ENERGY STAR qualified products that have been certified by an EPA-recognized certification body may be nominated for the Most Efficient label until the end of next year.

Eligible products include: heating and air conditioning units, boilers, refrigerator-freezers, clothes washers, and televisions.

In addition to extending the program, a few changes to the criteria are also being made. Of particular interest to energy efficiency professionals are the new requirements for refrigerator-freezers and televisions.

For refrigerator-freezers, the maximum energy criterion will be raised to 481 kWh/year, from the original 422 kWh/year.

The television requirement has been raised to:

Pmax=82*TANH(0.00084(A-150)+0.05)+12.75

1. Pmax = maximum allowable On Mode Power consumption in W
2. A = viewable screen area of the product in square inches
3. TANH =hyperbolic tangent function

Since this is a pilot program, more changes are likely to come. Stay tuned for further developments.

Any questions related to ENERGY STAR's Most Efficient program, can be addressed to the following email: mostefficient@energystar.gov.