One of the easiest and most by many recognized ways for consumers to use environmental chargeability is to gain energy-efficient appliances, electronics and heating and cooling systems sporting the federal Energy Star logo. But some Energy Star products don't explosive up to that theoretically huge standard, and that means that consumers don't get the environmental benefits and force payment savings they expect. New Samsung and LG French door consummate refrigerators, for example, won Energy Star tags, but only because U.S. Department of Energy regulations permit the manufacturers to assay the refrigerators with their ice-makers turned off -- which is not how they are normally Euphemistic pre-owned in the home.
The regulatory evasion let LG certify its refrigerator for the Energy Star style by claiming it will use 547 kilowatt hours of ardour a year when its real-life forcefulness use with the ice-maker turned on is more than hypocritical that at 1,110 kilowatt hours annually, according to untrammelled tests conducted by Consumer Reports for an article in its October issue. The Samsung refrigerator with Energy Star designation claims it uses 540 kilowatt hours of energy a year. But with the ice-maker on, its power use jumps to 890 kWh per year, according to Consumer Reports tests. Similar models of the refrigerators made by Samsung and LG are sold under other trade-mark names.
The magazine's lie on article says the 16-year-old federal program that rates animation handling by appliances and electronics in more than 50 categories uses outdated testing rules and untidy standards to furnish Energy Star ratings. "Energy Star ratings were intended to be the gold standard, and the program over the years has done absurd things, but as we did testing of supplemental appliances and dug deeper we found some situations where the program's collision was diluted," said Steven Saltzman, a reserve redactor at Consumer Reports who worked on the story. "The testing standards just haven't kept up with the technology." The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has called on the DOE to look into the refrigerator testing problems and penalize the manufacturers if the refrigerators aren't energy-efficient and are in reality violating federal nadir might productivity standards. Products that fit for an Energy Star rating should use less vim and vigour -- in the main between 10 and 25 percent less -- than the extremity allowed by DOE for equivalent products. As a result, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the program with the DOE, said that closing year the program prevented more than 40 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and saved consumers more than $16 billion on their utility bills. But Mr. Saltzman said some merchandise standards are 14 years close and as a consequence almost all products in some categories modify for Energy Star designation.
Until recently, 92 percent of dishwashers received the designation. After an updating of the standards, 50 percent of dishwashers are rated Energy Star efficient. According to the EPA, about 25 percent of the products in a department should equip for the Energy Star badge of honor.
The program allows manufacturers to examine their own products and only selectively spot-checks the evaluation results they submit. Consumer Reports suggests that the Energy Star program ratings be updated to allow for a graded labeling system, comparable to those worn in many European nations, that would stand consumers to diagnose the most energy-efficient products. "They're not accounting for strange technology, and if they don't vitalize the [qualifying] bar, it dilutes the signification of Energy Star and the rating identification that comes with it," Mr. Saltzman said.
"Here's a chest -- in the manner of with drugs and nourishment -- where we miss supervision to intervene. We want consumers to identify that the dope they're getting on the Energy Star name is accurate." Jennifer Scoggins, a DOE spokeswoman, said the area is knowing of the Consumer Reports allegations and is "looking into the issue." She said the unit has established a cabinet to begin revising the Energy Star rules for refrigerators, and budding regulations should be proposed by January 2010.
Consumer Reports is not the cardinal to title the Energy Star ratings into question. To fall complaints by 14 states, including Pennsylvania, a 2006 federal court acceptance straighten requires the DOE to update and make tighter misleading Energy Star ratings given to products in almost two dozen categories, including dishwashers, song conditioners, heaters, furnaces and gear dryers. Some of those changes -- for furnaces, boilers and tankless salt water heaters -- have been completed. But under a manage update time agreed to by the court, many others, including those for chamber broadcast conditioners and apparel dryers, won't be done until June 2011. Ms. Scoggins said court-ordered reborn testing standards for whole-house music conditioning units and torridness pumps will be finished by the end of the month as required.
Don Hopey can be reached at or 412-263-1983.
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