Energy Star Guidelines for Your Facility

A comprehensive energy efficiency and conservation plan can save significant amounts of money at a commercial facility. There are many effective techniques that can be applied, but one of the most effective is also one of the most basic: start with the equipment and devices that use energy and replace them with more efficient models. Even if done little by little over time, the cumulative effect will be ever-diminishing energy use and ever-increasing savings. When you’re looking for products that meet these qualification, find devices that carry the Energy Star label and certification.

The Energy Star Program in Brief

The Energy Star program is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It exists the educate the public about energy conservation and efficiency. By doing so, it aims to reduce energy use and help U.S. consumers make smarter choices about their energy needs. It also works to protect the environment through better management and use of energy resources. According to the Energy Star website, its efforts have helped consumers save some $362 billion on their utility bills since 1992. In addition, it has reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 billion tons since 1992.

Energy Star Guidelines

Energy Star guidelines help U.S. consumers, both residential and commercial, identify and find Energy-efficient appliances, electronics, and equipment. The most prominent indicator of energy efficiency is the Energy Star logo. This logo indicates that the product carrying it has been tested and certified as being as energy efficient as possible. Consumers can find the logo affixed somewhere on the product, usually on the informative Energy Guide label that provides details on the product’s energy usage and expected operating costs.

Energy Star certification is granted to a wide range of devices that use electrical power to operate. They can include:

• Appliances (such as clothes washers, clothes dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers, and freezers)
• Electronics (such as televisions, audio and video equipment, telephones, and cable boxes)
• Office equipment (such as computers, copiers, servers, network equipment, and monitors)
• Heating and cooling equipment (such as central air conditioners, air-source heat pumps, furnaces, geothermal heat pumps, ventilation fans, and commercial heating and cooling equipment)
• Lighting (such as light bulbs, light fixtures, ceiling fans, and commercial light fixtures)
• Commercial food service equipment (such as freezers, fryers, ovens, griddles, ice makers, refrigerators, and steam cookers)

To be granted Energy Star certification, the device must conform to several guidelines and standards. They include:

• The product’s energy efficiency must be measurable and verifiable with testing.
• The product must provide, in addition to energy efficiency, and appropriate set of features and performance that consumers would expect from such a product.
• The product and others in its category must be able to provide significant energy savings no matter where it is used throughout the country.
• The energy efficiency of the product must be achievable through non-propriety technologies that are widely available from more than one manufacturer.
• If the product costs more than comparable low-efficiency models, the monthly savings from energy efficiency must be sufficient to allow the purchaser to recover the cost of the produce from those savings alone over a reasonable period of time.

Remember, only those products that have been tested and certified by the Energy Star program can carry the Energy Star label. The Energy Star site indicates that public awareness of the label and what it means is at about 85 percent.

Energy Star Most Efficient

There is also another level of Energy Star recognition: the Most Efficient label. This indicates that the product is among the most energy efficient of the Energy Star-certified products of its kind.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about Plumbing, HVACR, Fire Protection, and Alarm Systems in Mechanical, Commercial, and Residential settings. For more information the Energy Star program and how products earn the Energy Star certification, or to view projects we’ve worked on, visit our website!