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Energy Star

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The Energy Star is the symbol that marks the international standard of energy efficiency for all sorts of electronic products from computers and kitchen appliances to buildings and peripherals. The Energy Star standard has been adopted by Japan, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Taiwan and EU after being first introduced in the United States in 1992. The great thing about products manufactured according to the Energy Star regulation is that they save around 20% or 30% on electricity, which is rewarding from the money saving perspective as well as from the environmental point of view. Electronic equipment with the Energy Star certification also combine low energy usage with good space features.

Energy Star

The introduction of the Energy Star standard resulted from the ever higher threat of the greenhouse effect to which power plants have a massive contribution. John Hoffman helped with the development and the implementation of the Energy Star program, as he also had the experience of other successful green projects. Initially, the whole project was meant to increase population awareness about the existence of energy efficient items on the market, and computers were the first to carry the Energy Star label. After 1995, new homes, as well as residential cooling and heating systems fell under the incidence of the Energy Star. The year 2006 brought a true abundance of products marked with the Energy Star and servicing a variety of activity sectors.

Energy savings of up to 20% have been registered with refrigerators, while dishwashers have a huge saving rate of 41%. Moreover, the annual cost of the operation for the cooling and heating systems manufactured according to the Energy Star standards is indicated on the label for the buyer to appreciate and compare with other standard methods. The Department of Energy is the only institution that can label a product as energy efficient or not. Fortunately, this energy saving project has reached such technological levels that some electronic products register 90% more economic functioning.

Energy Star

Different kinds of lighting systems now carry the Energy Star symbol, and the implementation of fluorescent lighting is nowadays demanded by law, with incandescent lamps banned from countries like Australia for instance. Light bulbs that carry the Energy Star symbol use 75% less energy than their incandescent counterparts; furthermore, they can be used anywhere for indoor and outdoor purposes, for emergency lighting systems and complex business projects. Even the light decorations we use for Christmas ought to carry the Energy Star symbol. With further consumer education, such energy saving utilities will come to replace the older designs that indirectly triggered environment destruction.

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