Inexpensive Home Building

Cut through the jargon and nonsense of home building and house construction by starting from zero dollars and trying to figure best-value bang-for-your-buck when choosing construction methods or construction materials. My research might answer some of your questions and at other times perhaps you have the knowledge or experience to post the answers to my questions and thereby help others too. The goal is an affordable and sustainable home for all.


Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Fraud: Energy Star Efficiency Compliance


Home Energy magazine wrote about manufacturers overstating product capacity and governments doing flawed efficiency tests and issuing misleading "green" recommendations:

"An insidious, new form of noncompliance has recently emerged. Thanks to microprocessor controls, some appliances now recognize when they are being tested and switch into a low-energy mode. According to Consumer Reports, this appears to be the case with a new LG refrigerator, which inexplicably switches off some operations when the ambient temperature approaches the testing temperature and when doors haven’t been opened for a while. These measures cut enough electricity use to qualify the unit for Energy Star endorsement and sales-enhancing utility rebate programs. LG appears to be failing to comply with energy regulations in two countries. (Is anybody paying attention?) But LG is not alone; Japanese refrigerator manufacturers became so adept at circumventing the test that actual electricity use of refrigerators was typically twice as high as the labels claimed. The situation became so embarrassing that the government changed the test procedure to make it harder to circumvent. Many U.S. appliance manufacturers (and importers) are poised to adopt the same approach as LG and Japanese manufacturers. The FTC, DOE, and Energy Star should be on the alert."

3 Comments:

At 5:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Appliance makers everywhere are faking compliance to EnergyStar parameters.
Our landlord removed a large, 30+ y.o. refrigerator with leaking gaskets, that was running most of the time & leaked puddles of water.
The replacement is a smaller GE, Energy Star unit.
BUT...the first utility bill was $10.00 higher. The second utility bill was $20.00 higher.
Feeling cold emanating from the unit, I taped 1" foam insulation [2' x 4' panels] on sides and top; 1/2" thick foam panels on the doors.
The blue coating on foam is a nice color that could also be covered with whatever one wants.
It immediately cut run-time in half or better.
The extra foam also helped save food during a 22-hour power outage.
What a difference!
Inquiring minds wanna know:
It's really cheap to put that foam into the refrigerator cabinet walls...so why don't manufacturers just DO IT?!?

 
At 5:44 PM, Blogger J at IHB and HFF said...

Hello. You could insulate your stove too. Maybe manufacturers don't do it for size reasons. Did your old refrigerator not have automatic defrost but your new one does?

Thank you for the visit.

 
At 11:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How do you put the extr foam on the refrigerator? I don't understand from the description. Can you post a picture?

 

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