Letter from the U.S. EPA to InfoComm Manufacturer Members
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently revising the ENERGY STAR® Audio/DVD specification to take advantage of opportunities for increased energy efficiency in a broad range of product categories.
The ENERGY STAR program is a voluntary partnership between government, businesses, and purchasers designed to encourage the manufacture, purchase, and use of efficient products. Manufacturers that design and qualify their products according to the ENERGY STAR specification are able to use the label as a marketing tool to highlight these products for their customers. To date:
- More than 2,000 manufacturers are partnering with ENERGY STAR
- More than 40,000 product models carry the ENERGY STAR label across more than 60 product categories
- More than 75% of Americans recognize the ENERGY STAR label
- American consumers have purchased more than 2.5 billion ENERGY STAR qualified products
The existing Version 1.0 ENERGY STAR Audio/DVD specification was designed to limit stand-by power consumption of residential AV products and did not apply to the professional AV market. Over the past year, manufacturers have requested that the ENERGY STAR program be extended to include professional products in order to meet growing customer demand for energy efficiency. EPA believes there is significant energy savings potential in the professional AV market, and has initiated development of a function-based specification that would apply to audio/video products across all market segments.
Audio/video products under consideration at this time include: Home Theater AV Receiver, Internet Media Player (Audio and/or Video), Digital Media Server, Removable Media Player/Recorder (Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD, SACD), Audio Power Amplifier, Audio Tuner, Audio Pre-amp, Self-powered Speaker, Wireless Speaker System, Home Theater in a Box (HTIB), Compact & Portable Audio Systems, Compact Audio Shelf System, Clock Radio, Boombox, Home Radio, Karaoke Machine, Wireless Microphone System, Video Conference / Telepresence System, and Building PA System. EPA will consider including additional AV products as appropriate.
The process for setting an ENERGY STAR specification is inclusive, transparent, and data-driven. To that end, EPA recently developed a set of test procedures and invited manufacturers to test and submit power consumption data for products currently on the market. EPA will use this data to set performance-based specifications that identify energy-efficient products whose use results in reasonable financial return without sacrificing product performance or features.
Test data is due to AudioVideo@energystar.gov no later than June 19, 2009. The test procedures and data collection form are available on the ENERGY STAR website: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=revisions.audio_video_spec. For planning purposes, EPA would like to hear about manufacturers’ plans for product testing as soon as possible.
EPA is also in the process of developing the Draft 1 specification based on a framework document that was published in February, and plans to share this draft with stakeholders in May 2009. The final Audio/Video Version 2.0 specification is scheduled for completion by fall of 2009. If you have any questions, please contact Kathleen Vokes, EPA, at vokes.kathleen@epa.gov or Stephen Pantano, ICF International, at spantano@icfi.com.
