IT Makers Granted Delay in Conforming to New Energy Star Testing Rules

The EPA said it will take data submissions for Energy Star qualification for new IT products pending a test report through Dec. 31, prompting charges of discrimination against other electronic products. The agency said that for computers, displays, imaging gear and servers, it would “review for qualification product data constituting a complete submission, pending a test report, received by EPA through” Dec. 31. Manufacturers of these products must make available the lab report and other information by Jan. 31, failing which they would have to turn in their data to a certification body for review, the agency said.

The EPA’s decision to step back from its plans to implement changes to its new testing and verification regime by Jan. 1 is “generally positive but it seems to be discriminating based on product category or company rather than broadly recognizing the problems across the electronics industry,” said one industry official. “It seems to be a discriminatory approach to addressing problems with their artificial” Jan. 1 deadline, he said. Several trade groups had raised concerns about the Jan. 1 effective date, he said.

The IT industry made some “compelling arguments” for a delay, said Katharine Kaplan, Energy Star product manager. “So we accommodated some of their requests.” Among reasons cited by the IT industry included “short time to market [of] their products, the fact that products are tested for Energy Star very late in the game, the incredible configurability of them” and government Energy Star purchasing requirements in the U.S. and Europe, Kaplan said. As it set new qualification and verification testing rules for Energy Star that go into effect Jan. 1, the EPA said products can’t be submitted to it after that date for qualification. All new products must be certified by an EPA-recognized certification body before they can be labeled, it said.

In a communication to IT stakeholders, the EPA also announced that it would not require EPA-recognized manufacturers’ accredited labs to participate in a certification body’s “supervised or witnessed manufacturers testing lab program.” The change applies to all products, Kaplan told us. A certification lab may still want the manufacturer to be part of its supervised or witness testing program, she said. But it’s “up to the company” to take that into consideration when choosing a certification body (CB), she said. “We are not dictating how the CB does this."

International Energy Star partners who want to continue to have “mutual recognition” will have to build a qualification and verification regime that’s “comparable to our system,” said Kaplan. “Any model that is destined for the U.S. as well as Europe will need to meet the more stringent certification requirements,” she said.