What is Energy Star?

ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. It is widely recognized as the simple choice for energy efficiency. In fact, ninety-one percent of households recognize the blue label according to a recent report.

Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including nearly 40% of the Fortune 500®—partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions that protect the climate while improving air quality and protecting public health. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners have helped American families and businesses save 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs, and achieve 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions.

Over the lifetime of the program, every dollar EPA has spent on ENERGY STAR resulted in nearly $350 in energy cost savings for American businesses and households. In 2020 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped Americans save more than 520 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and avoid $42 billion in energy costs.

Behind each blue label is a product, building, or home that is independently certified to deliver the quality, performance, and savings that consumers have come to expect. Most U.S. households recognize and understand the intent of the ENERGY STAR label. Each year a substantial portion of U.S. households knowingly purchase at least one ENERGY STAR certified product and report being influenced by the label to do so.

ENERGY STAR products

ENERGY STAR is a simple choice for energy efficiency, making it easy for consumers and businesses to purchase products that save them money and protect the environment. EPA ensures that each product that earns the label is independently certified to deliver the efficiency performance and savings that consumers have come to expect. It’s that integrity that led Americans to purchase more than 300 million ENERGY STAR certified products in 2020 and more than 300 million ENERGY STAR certified light bulbs, with a market value of more than $100 billion. In fact, an average of 800,000 ENERGY STAR certified products were sold every day in 2020, bringing the total to more than 7 billion products sold since 1992.

ENERGY STAR for the Residential Sector

ENERGY STAR certified homes and apartments are at least 10% more energy efficient than those built to code and achieve a 20% improvement, on average, while providing homeowners and residents with better quality, performance, and comfort. Nearly three thousand builders, developers, and manufactured housing plants are ENERGY STAR partners, including all of the nation’s twenty largest home builders. Over 2.3 million ENERGY STAR certified homes have been built to date, including more than 120,000 in 2021 alone.

EPA also provides trusted guidance and online tools to help homeowners make smart decisions about improving the energy efficiency of their existing homes.

The ENERGY STAR Home Upgrade is a carefully crafted set of six high-impact, energy-efficiency improvements for your home. Designed to work together to deliver significant energy and cost savings, these upgrades can also help you transition from fossil fuels to a cleaner, healthier, and more comfortable home. You can choose the improvements that make the most sense for your home and implement them at your own pace.

This article is an excerpt from information provided on the Energy Star website.

For more info: www.energystar.gov