Does the 'Energy Star' label really mean something?

Energy Star qualified products can be far less expensive to own

When you can't decide whether LCD or plasma will offer the best TV experience for you, or whether Blu Ray will displace DVD as the next standard in data storage, there is one logo you can depend on to provide peak performance long after you've lost the receipt. Even if you can't see a difference between two white refrigerators, the difference in the operating numbers on the big yellow tag they both wear can be huge. Looking for both these labels when you start shopping can save you hundreds over the life of your purchase regardless of the brand name or sale price offered.

The first label to look for is the Energy Guide label from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The second is the Energy Star logo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy. Both of these will help you select appliances and electronics that use less energy, and therefore save money, year after year.

The Energy Guide label addresses the total cost to own an appliance after the purchase is made. After two years of testing and public comment, the familiar large yellow label underwent a change in 2007. This example provided by the FTC for a side-by-side refrigerator shows how the new streamlined label helps potential buyers focus on the energy use and costs of the appliance.

Of course, your true costs of ownership may vary from these numbers depending on how you use the appliance, and your local energy costs. But they do provide a baseline to help you identify the most efficient units to operate.

While all major appliances must meet federal standards for energy efficiency, not all appliances will sport the large yellow and black energy guide label. You won’t find the label on clothes dryers, kitchen stoves and microwave ovens because there is so little difference in energy use between models.

For most other appliances, including clothes washers, hot water heaters and refrigerators, even small gains in efficiency can make a big difference in the long term cost of ownership. That’s because home electronic and appliance use can account for as much as 25% of your total monthly energy bill. In part, this is due to the fact that they continue to use power, even when not in use.

Companies building more energy efficient products that reduce this “phantom” energy used by clock and instant-on features have been rewarded by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. If their products meet the qualifications of these two departments, they may call their products energy efficient or Energy Star qualified and display the “Energy Star” logo to their packages.

The Energy Star program, begun in 1982, focuses attention on an individual product’s overall energy efficiency and has become something of a quality rating that companies find has a high marketing value. However, the underlying savings that can be realized from the use of Energy Star qualified products are not as subjective as most marketing statements. After rigorous testing, here’s how the Department of Energy says some popular Energy Star qualified home electronics stack up:

• Qualified home audio products use 6% less energy when turned off than standard models. It may not sound like much, but that 6% is still more than the total energy consumed by the product when in use.
• Qualified TVs and VCRs use 30% less energy than standard models.
• Qualified TV/VCR and TV/DVD combinations average 50% less energy used than standard models
• DVD players can average up to 75% less energy used than standard models.

In mid 2007, Energy Star qualifications for other perennial Christmas gift favorites (and some standard business tools) were introduced. Desktop and laptop computers, as well as game consoles, desktop servers and workstations must now meet efficiency guidelines in sleep, standby and full use modes.

When announcing the new qualifications, the Department of Energy said that buying products that meet these new guidelines could save consumers and businesses more than 1.8 billion dollars over the next five years. Beyond that, they said the environmental impact of that energy savings will reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 2.7 million cars off the road.

The Energy Information Agency's 2006 Annual Energy Outlook reported that the average home has roughly two TVs, a VCR, a DVD player and three telephones. If every household replaced every one of these items with Energy Star qualified models, the environmental impact would be the same as taking another 3 million cars off the road.