Star Rating of Appliances

Conserving energy is the need of the hour. That may sound a bit dramatic, but there
is no getting away from the facts: population is increasing, natural resources are
dwindling and global warming is a threat. That should be reason enough to switch to
energy-efficient home appliances.
Today, buildings are increasingly responsible for hosting number of energy
consuming electronics and electrical equipments. Apart from general electronic
products such as Refrigerators, washing machines and Air conditioning units, people
with middle income groups are also buying high-end equipments. Also the formal
and informal market of inefficient electrical products influences the unprecedented
energy consumption at household level.
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), is an agency of the Government of India,
under the Ministry of Power created in March 2002. The mission of BEE is to
"institutionalize" energy efficiency services, and provide leadership to energy
efficiency in all sectors of the country. The primary objective would be to reduce
energy intensity in the economy. This will be achieved with active participation of all
stakeholders, resulting in accelerated and sustained adoption of energy efficiency in
all sectors.
A number of features are incorporated into appliances to make them energy
efficient and green, and depending on how well they meet the criteria, BEE gives
star ratings ranging between one and five. The parameters for the star rating are
set down by BEE.
In May 2006, BEE launched the Standards and Labeling (S&L) programme with an
objective to provide the consumer an informed choice about energy saving and
thereby the cost saving potential in electrical appliances used in houses & offices.
There was a need for standards and labeling programme because of wide variation
in energy consumption of products, information on energy consumption being often
not easily available or easy to understand from the nameplate and leading to
continued manufacture and purchase of inefficient equipments and appliances.
Under this programme, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has established
comparative star labeling system for indoor appliances like
The tubular
availablefluorescent
stars are
lamps, refrigerators (frost free and direct cool), and air
conditioners.
Other
between a minimum
of
appliances include distribution transformer, induction motors,
pump
sets,
ceiling
one and a maximum of
fans, LPG, electric geysers and color TV. The government has
make
it
fiveproposed
shown intoone
star
mandatory for all appliances in India to have ratings by theinterval.
BEE starting
in
January
The star rating
2010.
is calculated from the
Star Rating Band which
is the range of energy
efficiency (kWh/year).
This
is
used
for
determining
the
number
of
stars

Benefits of Star labeling System:

Providing information on energy use to consumers
Enabling consumers to reduce energy bills
Strengthening competitive markets
Mitigating climate change goals
Reducing urban/regional pollution
Reducing capital investment in energy supply infrastructure
MORE THE NUMBER OF STARS, MORE IS THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF THE
Air conditioners
Air conditioners usually consume
the highest energy among all
home appliances. The energy
consumption of an AC depends
on its size.
The star rating of airconditioners is based on the
Energy-Efficiency ratio (EER).
The EER for the air-conditioner is
defined as the ratio of output cooling
power (watt) to the input electrical
energy (watt).
The efficiency of an AC affects energy
consumption as much as the size of
the AC does. Additional amount spent
on efficient AC will be recovered in
less than six months due to savings in
the electricity bill

Refrigerators
Home Refrigerator, often called a fridge, has become an essential household
appliance. Refrigerators are extensively used to store fruits, vegetables and other
edible products.

A refrigerator is a cooling appliance that

transfers heat from its thermally insulated
compartment
to
the
external
environment, and thus cooling the stored
food in the compartment.
Refrigerators are one of the highest
consumers of electricity. A typical
refrigerator has a lifespan of 15 to 20
years. The cost of running it over t hat
time period is several times the initial
purchase price. Therefore it is
important to buy the most efficient
model available.
The
star
rating
of
airconditioners
is
based
on
Electricity Consumption (KWh) in
one year.
A BEE 5-star rated refrigerator will
initially costs more but will have
lower operation costs because of
energy efficient construction and insulation, and will pay for itself in less than four
years compared to a 2-star refrigerator.

Storage-type
Geysers

Electric

Stationary storage-type electric

water heaters (Geysers) (both
vertical and horizontal) up to
rated capacity of 200 litres are
considered under the S&L
Programme.
The star rating of the
electric water heater is
based on the grade of
standing
loss*
(kWh/24h/45C),
which
indicates how much energy is
lost from the tank.

This is defined for different capacities of storage tank varying from 6 to 200 litres.
* Standing loss is the electricity consumption of a filled water heater, after steady-state conditions
have been reached when connected to electrical supply, and when no water drawn for 24 hours and a
temperature difference of 45 oC is maintained between the tank water and ambient temperature.

Color Televisions
BEE specifies the energy labeling for color televisions of diagonal screen upto 215
centimeter and native vertical resolution upto 1920 X 108 pixels, of CRT, LCD (with
CFL Backlighting), LCD (with LED Backlighting) and Plasma technologies
The star rating of the color televisions is based on Annual Energy
Consumption (AEC) KWh/year. This AEC is based on 6 hours in On mode &
12 hours in Standby mode.

E = (X x A) + Y
Where E - AEC KWh/Year
X - ON mode power consumption W/Sq.inch x hour of operation x 365/1000,
KWh/Year
A - The effective / viewable screen area
Y Standby mode power consumption W x hour of operation x 365/1000,

The star rating equations for different models are derived by the following equation