EPA Bows New Energy Star Quality Assurance Testing Rules
The EPA on Friday unveiled new qualification and quality assurance testing requirements for Energy Star products, as the voluntary program encounters increased scrutiny and censure. A GAO investigation of Energy Star found the program vulnerable to fraud and abuse (CED March 29 p3). The IGs at EPA and the Department of Energy also have found that the program doesn’t have the “controls” to ensure that qualified products meet required efficiency standards.
The EPA is proposing that all Energy Star products be tested in accredited labs before qualification as against the current practice of self-certification for CE gear and other products. “The reason for testing and reporting prior to qualification is to ensure that EPA has testing information on all products prior to labeling,” said Kathleen Vokes, an Energy Star product manager. Testing from an accredited lab will also “ensure that the testing is conducted in way that is repeatable and representative of the products that enter the market,” she told stakeholders on a conference call.
"Verification testing” for some products or “quality assurance” testing that’s being proposed for CE, IT and office products “serves to ensure that products continue to meet the Energy Star requirements regardless of changes in the product process,” Vokes said. “This is important for providing assurance to consumers that the Energy Star products they buy are delivering the savings they expect.” Although the agency is proposing a quality assurance testing model for CE, IT and office product, it will look at the possibility of third-party certification and verification as well, she said. The agency believes the quality assurance models would work for CE and IT products because it takes into consideration the “configuration products and the short life times of many of these products that makes it more practical to conduct spot checks for verification purposes rather than having all models retested within a certain number of years."
For qualification, CE, IT and office products will be “ideally tested” in third-party independent labs with “specified accreditation,” she said. The agency is open to the use of in-house labs but only if “proper controls are in place,” said Vokes. Industry did voice concerns about the new requirements, including those related to costs, capacity of labs and “time-to-market” issues, she said. There were also suggestions to allow testing in manufacturers labs with “appropriate oversight,” she said. Third-party labs will be needed for those products for quality assurance testing as well, she said.
The agency also wants to make sure that models selected for testing are available in the market and can be obtained for testing, she said. Manufacturers will have to tell the agency where products can be bought. “We do intend on putting limits on the number of products selected for testing from each manufacturer” but the agency will give itself “flexibility to test more products from manufacturers who have had product failures in previous rounds.” The EPA preference is to get the products for testing from the marketplace, she said, but it’s also weighing other options such as “off-the-line” testing for “products which are not available off the shelf or are prohibitively expensive,” she said. There’s a lot of stakeholder support for off-the-shelf testing, she said.
Because of Energy Star’s international agreements, the agency will work with counterparts in other countries to share testing information and “hopefully if there is any testing happening outside the U.S. there can be data that can be share with us as well.” Comments on the general proposals are due April 30. The agency is hosting a “product-specific” conference call Wednesday to discuss qualification and quality assurance testing for TVs, set-top boxes, audio and video equipment, computers, digital converter boxes, imaging gear, servers, telephony, small network equipment and uninterruptible power supplies.