Government testers once got fake gadgets from made-up firms certified by Energy Star
In March 2010 government auditors submitted invented products from fictitious companies to Energy Star, and the scheme approved them. It was mostly self-certification at the time. The auditors found no actual fraud against shoppers, but from 2011 every product needed testing in a recognised laboratory before it could carry the logo.
The US Environmental Protection Agency launched Energy Star in 1992 as a voluntary label, starting with computers and their peripherals. Heating and cooling systems and new homes joined in 1995, and today more than 75 product categories qualify. Its backers credit it with saving 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity and over $500 billion in energy costs, and with preventing 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
The bar varies by product. As of early 2008, qualifying refrigerators had to beat the minimum federal standard by 20 percent, dishwashers by 41 percent. Labelled televisions use about 30 percent less energy than average and must draw no more than 3 watts on standby, and qualifying LED lamps use only a fifth to a quarter of the power of incandescent bulbs while lasting up to 25 times as long.
The label has limits. A small dehumidifier can qualify with a lower efficiency score than a larger one, so an unlabelled high-capacity model may actually be more efficient. Critics say the savings calculator rests on optimistic assumptions, and that squeezing efficiency out of cheap appliances with delicate electronics may shorten their lives.
Enforcement now runs through 23 certification bodies and 255 laboratories, according to 2017 figures, and in 2016 some 1,881 models underwent spot checks, with 95 percent passing. The programme has survived repeated threats: a 2017 budget proposal to scrap it, reorganisation plans in 2025, then bipartisan funding in 2026 and an announced move to the Department of Energy. Supporters say it saves Americans $40 billion a year for a government cost of $32 million.
Source: Energy Star
