Passing the stress test for energy efficiency

Promoters of the Energy Star efficiency standard got egg on their faces last year when the Government Accountability Office submitted fake products and companies for the Energy Star label. The EPA approved 15 out of 20 bogus applications. The problem was that the Energy Star rules at the time let manufacturers certify product performance themselves. There was no uninterested party verifying efficiency claims.

That all changed Jan. 1 with the initiation of Energy Star's third-party certification program. Now accredited certification bodies (CBs) verify claims — they've already approved 10,000 new products. About 300 labs have been authorized to test products for certification, up from the 100 or so labs greeting the new initiative in January.

“The first four months was a rapid learning curve, but this second phase is a little easier,” summarizes Carl Bloomfield, global business line director for energy efficiency and lighting at Intertek, a CB that also has its own approved testing facilities. “Is it perfect? No, but we're at about 80 to 90%. Questions remain about how to test uniformly, some specs still are being written, but from our point of view we're almost there.”

The new setup and accounting method goes far beyond the old EPA method under which the agency simply collected basic efficiency data from product manufacturers. Now product makers appear generally satisfied with the scope and intent of the program. But they're growing impatient waiting for the infrastructure that makes the certification program more familiar, comfortable, and flexible.

The EPA, for instance, updates its database of new products bearing the Energy Star label about twice a month; manufacturers would like to see the database updated daily. (EPA indicates this should happen in Q2/Q3.) But the big issue is the cost of testing, plus the fact that many earlier products will not be grandfathered.

Participants aren't too concerned about meeting universally consistent testing procedures. Doing so economically is another issue. Product makers understand the rationale for standardization and third-party testing by independent, supervised (STLs), or witnessed testing laboratories (WTLs). But certification costs will likely ratchet up for product development, testing, and verification.

A case in point are the lighting, and solid-state lighting (SSL) devices which are part of the recent, complex Energy Star Luminaires v1.0 spec. Lighting industry insiders say there has been some informal grumbling about testing costs associated with residential light fixtures and “luminaires” (LEDs and their fixtures) which largely capture the Energy Star spotlight these days. Many lighting projects are funded by city- and county-based efforts at illuminating public roads, stadiums, and parking garages. Taxpayers will ultimately absorb these costs.

Meanwhile, the high cost of LEDs equivalent to incandescent and fluorescent bulbs for residential use makes their application prohibitive. Adding the cost of certification testing to these already expensive lighting options won't help their economics, critics contend.

About the costs

The costs to certify a product today are not insignificant. And things could get even more expensive with yearly verification of Energy Star requirements, a measure also included in the new certification regime. So economics will probably push lighting manufacturers to submit only their most promising or successful offerings for Energy Star status. Expect to see the same tradeoffs in other categories (white goods, consumer electronics, commercial food service equipment) as EPA fashions tougher specifications.

Still, EPA says it planned Energy Star certification procedures keeping costs in mind. “There were three key things we did to limit the manufacturer's burden, says Kathleen Vokes, Lead for Program Integrity at EPA. “First, we leveraged existing programs to test for safety and sanitation. So people like Underwriters Laboratories (UL) now also offer energy efficiency testing and certification services for Energy Star.