What does the ENERGY STAR label mean?
The EPA uses the following criteria to determine whether a particular product is eligible for the label.
- Product categories must contribute significant energy savings nationwide.
- Qualified products must deliver the features and performance demanded by consumers, in addition to increased energy efficiency.
- If the qualified product costs more than a conventional, less-efficient counterpart, purchasers will recover their investment in increased energy efficiency through utility bill savings, within a reasonable period of time.
- Energy efficiency can be achieved through broadly available, nonproprietary technologies offered by more than one manufacturer.
- Product energy consumption and performance can be measured and verified with testing.
- Labeling will effectively differentiate products and be visible for purchasers.
The Economics of Energy-Efficiency Decisionmaking
Energy-efficiency considerations are one of the areas where you will constantly be moving back and forth between the performance benefits of increased efficiency and the associated economic costs and savings. Energy cost savings are an important performance metric to keep in mind while analyzing any energy-efficient innovation. Although some considerations, such as comparing several product options, may be fairly straightforward, other evaluations can be quite complex and involve building modeling, pricing projections, inflation, and depreciation.
Consider the energy and economics expertise you have access to and whether you might be well served to hire an outside expert in the field, such as the Building Performance Institute (BPI), Inc., which trains and certifies energy auditors who can prioritize energy improvements for your building, while ensuring that the indoor environment is safe and combustion appliances operate properly. An energy audit can help identify those measures that offer the greatest savings for the investment. See the economic considerations chapter for more discussion on economic analysis.