The Energy Star program has been getting some flack in the past few years from critics who claim it has failed to keep up with energy efficiency improvements in the marketplace and no longer serves as an adequate benchmark for energy efficient products, systems, and buildings. But recent changes implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) promise to jump start and enhance Energy Star, helping it to maintain its viability and leadership role.
EPA and DOE recently re-evaluated the nature and organization of their partnership to promote and provide guidance on energy efficient products and buildings through the Energy Star for products and buildings program and the National Building Rating program. The agencies will still be partners in the programs, but their roles are changing. And key enhancements to the two programs will be implemented.
“EPA and DOE really pride ourselves on Energy Star being a “trustmark” in the marketplace for consumers and for homebuilders to design to. There are about 60 different kinds of products that can earn the Energy Star, as well as new homes, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities,” says Maria Vargas, Energy Star spokesperson. “The specifications for Energy Star were up-to-date in the marketplace, but there were some areas where we could make improvements.”
New Roles for DOE and EPA
Under the memorandum of understanding between the agencies, EPA will now take the lead role on the Energy Star program, managing the day-to-day marketing, outreach, and monitoring and verification of product testing, as well as establishing performance levels for products and buildings. DOE will support EPA’s management by developing product testing procedures and metrics and performing technological analyses. Going forward, EPA will implement several enhancements to the Energy Star products program that ultimately will benefit consumers, including:
Setting specifications that will ensure consistent application of the Energy Star logo to identify the top 25 percent most-efficient products within a category.
Expanding product coverage to include new consumer product categories that have high energy-saving potential.
Increasing verification of compliance with program requirements and improving efforts to identify and address product performance issues. All products will be required to submit product performance testing results to EPA from an accredited laboratory before a product can be qualified under Energy Star.
Implementing measures that will ensure Energy Star performance specifications are tightened as necessary so that the program consistently represents top-performing products and doesn’t fall behind performance improvements in the marketplace.
Developing an Energy Super Star program as a higher performance tier within the Energy Star program to help consumers more easily identify the top-performing products within a category. The Super Star tier will comprise approximately 5 percent of products within a category and will include advanced technologies and products that have a longer payback period than those qualified under the main Energy Star program. DOE will manage a new National Building Rating program, which will provide efficiency ratings and assessments of cost-effective improvements for existing homes and other buildings. Performance requirements for buildings under the Energy Star program will be based on the National Building Rating program. DOE will also develop a national, comprehensive energy efficiency rating system for residential and commercial buildings: a whole-building, scale-based rating tool that addresses a building’s physical characteristics and past energy performance and establishes a method for comparing its performance to other similar buildings. Other planned enhancements to the National Building Rating program include:
Developing a labeling scheme that will relate building energy use information as determined by the rating system.
Updating the whole-building scale-based rating system as necessary to reflect improvements in building technology and analytical tools, and to improve usability.
Developing a database of energy-use and implemented retrofits for residential and commercial buildings receiving Recovery Act funding to establish a baseline of energy efficient performance.
Expanding a database to track the impact and costs of retrofit measures and upgrading methodologies for evaluating new and existing retrofit technologies.
Develop, maintain, and improve certification standards and training programs for home contractors and other home improvement professionals as well as for energy auditors and building inspectors. Each of these program improvements will support Energy Star’s goals. Vargas points out that, aside from periodic revisions to the specifications for Energy Star Homes, nothing will change for homebuilders who use the energy efficient home-building guidelines. EPA will continue to be the entity with which builders interact for Energy Star Home projects.
Driving Energy Efficiency
“We wanted to make sure, as a government, that we are driving energy efficiency for consumers and that Energy Star remains the benchmark for energy efficiency, and also we wanted to drive greater efficiency in homes and other buildings,” says Vargas.
The changes in the DOE and EPA partnership and the various program enhancements are intended to play to each agency’s strengths and streamline the management of the Energy Star program.
“DOE has an organizational heritage of being incredibly good at research and development, figuring out test procedures, protocols, and standards; and that will continue to be enhanced in this agreement,” Vargas notes. “EPA has a very nice track record of market deployment and of working with consumers to get information to them and drive behavior change.”
