Energy Star
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 further combine ergonomic properties with low energy consume.
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. The one that supervised the development and the implementation of the Energy Star program was John Hoffman, the creator of other green programs. Initially, the Energy Star had to increase the consumer’s awareness about the presence of energy efficient products 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. 2006 brought a true explosion of products labeled with the Energy Star and servicing a variety of activity sectors.
Refrigerators can save up to 20% while Energy star labeled dishwashers have an energy consume with 41% lower. 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 remains the only institution that can label a product as energy efficient or not. Fortunately, this environment project has developed at such technological levels that there are electronic products that use with 90% less energy.
Different kinds of lighting systems now carry the Energy Star symbol, and the use of fluorescent lighting is presently 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 find applications anywhere for indoor and outdoor purposes, for emergency lighting systems and complex business projects. Even the light decorations we install for Christmas should carry the Energy Star symbol. As the mass education progresses, such energy saving utilities will come to replace the older designs that indirectly triggered environment destruction.
