EPA Weighs Including Factors Other Than Energy in TV Spec Revision

The EPA announced its intention to strengthen the Energy Star specification for TVs even as a new version of the spec is set to take effect in September. The agency this week released a list of “priority areas” for revision of the TV standard that will result in version 6.0. Version 5.3 will take effect Sept. 30. “We have determined from assessing the market and feedback from our stakeholders that the time is ripe to open up the spec revision again,” an EPA official told us. TVs are also among a handful of products the EPA is considering for a top-tier “most efficient” program that it’s piloting this year (CED March 21 p6).

The revision is being considered to “both maintain Energy Star as a market differentiator for TVs and propose some refinements to how Energy Star TVs are tested,” Verena Radulovic, Energy Star product manager, wrote stakeholders. The aim is to develop more stringent energy efficiency requirements “based on recent market data and observations,” she said. The revision will also address concerns over testing for the automatic brightness control feature of TVs and boost the test method for luminance measurement, she said. As with other recent product specification revisions, the agency is proposing adding criteria for “additional environmental benefits,” she said.

With the Department of Energy starting a rulemaking to set standards for TVs, the EPA has been in “close conversations with the DOE and we are going to try and make sure that we harmonize where we can,” Radulovic told us. The market now has larger TVs coming out and the specification update will consider that as well, she said. The agency is now doing an “internal assessment” about what additional environmental criteria other than energy efficiency can be proposed for the specification, she said. “We have some ideas, including looking at some of the upstream greenhouse gases.” Factors other than efficiency that the agency is proposing to include in Energy Star standards are an area that “manufacturers are curious to see how the EPA is going to proceed,” Radulovic said. “What we are going to do is propose an approach that makes sense and that is practicable and achievable."

The EPA proposes to release the first draft of version 6.0 in late May, Radulovic said. The agency wants to finalize the spec in the fall so it can take effect “sometime in 2012,” she said. The EPA plans to host a webinar in late May on the specification, she said, and it is open to a stakeholders meeting in Washington on June 6.