Mr. Green

March 18, 2010 - Without a doubt, one of the most active proponents of energy efficiency during the last 40 years has been Art Rosenfeld who recently retired as a commissioner at the California Energy Commission (CEC). Rosenfeld is a distinguished physicist, earning his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi, and in 2006 was honored with the Enrico Fermi award for scientific achievement by President Bush.

March 8, 2010 - ENERGY STAR adds another new product group to its expanding stable of efficiency programs with the start of a development process for its first uninterruptible power supply (UPS) specification.

Targeting UPSs makes sense since they’re commonly used throughout the small office, home office and enterprise data center markets. Plus, they fit in nicely with the experience that ENERGY STAR previously acquired during program development for power supplies, battery chargers, and data center IT equipment.

February 26, 2010 - In all the talking I do about efficiency specs, one subject I haven't touched on much is the testing done to ensure that specs are actually being met. As specifications get tighter, especially in cases where they are mandatory, the ability to document and certify compliance will become a greater concern. In fact, many standards organizations are now requiring third-party testing from accredited labs in order for products to receive certification.

February 9, 2010 - Usually, moving from tier 1 to tier 2 of an energy efficiency spec takes little more than a quick review of the original tier 2 power consumption limits to make sure they’re still appropriate, filling in the limits for specs that were “tbd” and a brief notification to stakeholders on the upcoming effective date.

February 3, 2010 - The team at ENERGY STAR continues to go after energy hogs in homes and offices. The next group of products coming under the ENERGY STAR umbrella is small network equipment (SNE). This includes: wired routers and switches, access points with IEEE 802.11 (a.k.a. "wi-fi") connectivity (including repeaters), broadband modems (DSL and cable), integrated home access devices (IHAD), and optical network termination devices (ONT).