ENERGY STAR programme - Refrigerators & Freezers

Background

In 1992, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) launched the ENERGY STAR program as a voluntary market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through increased energy efficiency.

In 2001, a first set of ENERGY STAR guidelines for commercial refrigerators and freezers was released to identify products that meet energy efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and the US Department of Energy. These guidelines were only recommendations for commercial original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to follow, establishing a maximum daily energy consumption allowed per cubic foot of refrigerated space, for the refrigerator or freezer to be considered ENERGY STAR. However, no national legislation was put in place to prohibit the sale of non-ENERGY STAR-rated units.

Targets

The overall target is to replace all existing commercial solid-door refrigerators and freezers in the U.S. with ENERGY STAR-labelled models to achieve savings of almost $250 million per year, or roughly 25% of the energy consumed by models currently on the market – the equivalent of eliminating the emissions from 475,000 cars. The ENERGY STAR programme targets the overall system energy efficiency by setting special requirements for single components, such as evaporators and compressors. It has established a list of 900 commercial refrigerators and freezers to be labelled as ENERGY STAR products in the US.

Impact & Limitation

Firstly, the ENERGY STAR programme established energy consumption as a key criterion in the buying decision of consumers for the first time ever. Secondly, it provided the first test guidelines for determining daily energy consumption: ASHRAE 117-1992 / 117-2002 However, the ENERGY STAR programme has two clear limitations:

• Voluntary character: It does not prohibit the sale of non-energy-efficient equipment but rather relies on market dynamics as the governing body for changing consumer behaviour.



• Limited scope: It only covers solid-door commercial refrigerators and freezers, thereby excluding all self-contained glass-door systems which by their nature consume more energy, although they are less popular in the marketplace than solid-door units.

Latest & Next steps

In 2003, the shortcomings of the ENERGY STAR programme were addressed by California which set mandatory energy consumption standards for both solid and glass door commercial refrigerators and freezers under its “Appliance Efficiency Regulations”. These regulations defined a maximum allowable energy consumption to be reduced over time and prohibited the sale of any equipment not complying with this maximum. A revised version of 2005 is the equivalent of the voluntary ENERGY STAR targets.

Following California’s example, other US states enforced or are currently in the process of adopting legislation that limits the sale of non-energy-efficient commercial refrigerators and freezers. These State energy efficiency standards are expected to be adopted at the national level.