EPA Seeks Comments on Draft Guide for ENERGY STAR Reported Values
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is accepting comments, by June 1, 2011, on its draft guidance on the certification of reported values for ENERGY STAR requirements. This guidance is intended to address the need for manufacturers to report consistent information on product performance, and is based on practices already being implemented by some certification bodies.
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EPA recently released its draft guidance on reported values, which it previously planned to finalize by May 18, 2011. However, EPA now states it will finalize this guidance after reviewing comments.
As previously reported, highlights of the draft guidance include the following:
Allowances for Reported & Measured Values to Deviate
EPA’s draft guidance provides specific allowances for measured and reported values to deviate, while ensuring that ENERGY STAR certified ratings provide consumers with an accurate indication of product performance.
Reported values are those that will be displayed on the list of qualified products, while measured values are included in laboratory test reports. EPA states that in most cases, reported values will not differ from measured values. However, manufacturers may occasionally need to report values that differ from those obtained during testing, for example, to ensure that product literature is aligned with EPA lists of qualified products.
Certification of Reported Values
EPA provides the following draft guidelines for the certification of reported values, which are limited to the ENERGY STAR energy efficiency and energy consumption requirements:
(1) Measured and reported values must both meet the applicable ENERGY STAR specification.
(2) If the two values differ, the reported value shall not be more efficient than the measured value. Certification bodies may provide exceptions to this guide if the reported value is supported by additional testing data. However, in no case may the reported value differ from the measured value by more than 10% of the measured value.
(3) If the certification body subsequently rerates a product, it shall submit the revised product performance information to EPA.
EPA notes that these guidelines support manufacturers’ competing reporting needs for documenting product performance, but are not intended to supersede ENERGY STAR product specifications.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 05/13/11 news, 11051329, for BP summary of the draft guidance.)
EPA Contact -- Kathleen Vokes Certification@energystar.gov.
Draft guidance available by emailing documents@brokerpower.com.