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Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards were first established by the United States Congress in Part B of Title III of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) (Public Law 94-163). Those standards were then amended by The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1975 (Public Law 100-12), then by The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987 (Public Law 100-357), and later by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-486). The latest changes were made by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-58).

All of these laws and regulations have to do with creating mandatory standards that deal with the energy efficiency of certain household appliances. These standards were put in place to ensure that manufacturers were building products that are at the maximum energy efficiency levels are that are technically feasible and economically justified.

The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1975
The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1975 (NAECA) was enacted to help create uniform appliance efficiency standards at a time when individual states were creating their own standards. The NAECA established a conservation program for major household appliances, however no real standards came into existence until the 1980's when appliance manufacturers realized it was easier to conform to a uniform federal standard then individual state standards.

The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987
The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987 established minimum efficiency standards for many household appliances, including :
 * Refrigerators
 * refrigerator-freezers
 * freezers
 * Room Air conditioner
 * fluorescent lamp ballasts
 * incandescent reflector lamps
 * clothes dryers
 * clothes washers
 * dishwashers
 * kitchen ranges and ovens
 * pool heaters
 * television sets (withdrawn in 1995)
 * water heaters

Congress set the initial efficiency standards at the start of the act then set a schedule for the United States Department of Energy to review them.

The Energy Policy Act of 1992
The Energy Policy Act of 1992 expanded the list of standards to include :
 * some fluorescent and incandescent reflector lamps
 * plumbing products
 * electric motors
 * commercial water heaters
 * heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems

The Energy Policy Act of 1992 also provided for voluntary consumer information programs for :
 * Office Equipment
 * Luminaries
 * Windows

Energy policy Act of 2005
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 put the United States Department of Energy and the United States Environmental Protection Agency in charge of expanding and monitoring the Energy Star program, and listed the program by name in Public Law.

Labeling of Appliances


In order for consumers to better understand the different energy efficiencies and cost associated with appliance options, appliances must be labeled to give consumers this information. The appliances the must have this label are Ceiling Fans, Showerheads, Faucets, Water Closets, Urinals, Room Air Conditioners, Water Heaters (all types), Pool Heaters, Furnaces and Boilers, Clothes Washers, Freezers, Refrigerator-Freezers, Refrigerators, Heat Pumps, Central Air Conditioners, Dishwashers, and various types of lamps. The label must show the model number, the size, key features, and display largely a graph showing the annual operating cost in range with similar models, and the estimated yearly energy cost.

The Energy Policy Act of 1992 called for new rules to be made for required and voluntary labeling programs. This spawned the creation of the Energy Guide label and the Energy Star Label?

Using standard test procedures developed by the United States Department of Energy, manufacturers must prove the energy use and efficiency of their product. Test results are printed on a yellow EnergyGuide Label, which manufacturers are required to display on their appliances. The label shows :
 * How much energy the appliance uses
 * compares the energy use to similar products
 * lists approximate annual operating costs

Energy Star is a similar labeling program, but requires more stringent efficiency standards for an appliance to become qualified, and is not a required program, but a voluntary one. Essentially, an Energy Star label shows that the appliance you have chosen uses less energy and will save you more money then it's non-energy star rated competitor

Economic Benefit
By mandating appliances use electricity more efficiently consumers have gotten better appliances that require less energy to get the same if not more performance. By reducing the electricity required to run appliances consumers have saved tremendous amounts of money since 1975. In many cases the price of these more efficient appliances has not increased compared to previous less efficient models. A great example of this is refrigerators.



The graph above shows refrigerator use in the United States from 1947 until 2002. Before the National Appliance Energy Act of 1975 refrigerators were getting larger in size and using more and more electricity per unit. After 1975 the trend of refrigerator size increasing continued but dramatically after 1975 the electrical use per unit began to decline as a result of the Act. Also importantly after 1975 the price of refrigerators price began to decline. So immediately following this Act consumers in the United States began to get larger refrigerators the use less electricity and cost less per unit. Appliances like refrigerators are essentially always running so these energy improvements since 1975 have saved tremendous amounts of electricity over time. This creates lower utility bills for consumers which allows them to spend their money elsewhere. A refrigerator sold today uses about 70% less electricity as one sold in 1970.

It has been estimated that these standards have saved American taxpayers over $300 Billion in energy savings. Overall these standards have reduced total American energy use by 3.6%, or about 3.6 quadrillion BTU"s every year. Due to the fact that Americans have billions of more dollars every year to reinvest into other sectors of the economy, which they otherwise would not have had without these standards, millions of jobs have been created.  It is estimated that theses energy savings supported 340,000 American jobs in 2010. The electricity industry does not support a lot of jobs compared to the amount of revenue it takes in.  So when people reinvest their energy savings into other sectors of the economy that support more jobs per dollar of revenue, jobs are created.  These 340,000 jobs created by energy standards represent 0.2% of American jobs a small but beneficial percentage.

Environmental Benefits
The majority of electrical power generation, in the United States, comes from combustion of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere. 45% of power generation comes from coal, 23% from natural gas, and 1% from petroleum. This totals to about 70% of American electrical consumption being produced from fossil fuels. In the previous section it was discussed that in 2010 3.6 quadrillion BTU's were saved by from the implementation of energy standards. This equates to about 2.52 quadrillion BTU's of energy produced from fossil fuels being abated every year because of these performance standards, or 750,000,000,000 kWh. Production of electricity from coal creates 2.095 pounds of carbon dioxide per kWh, from natural gas 1.321 pounds of carbon dioxide per kWh, and from petroleum 1.969 pounds of carbon dioxide per kWh. This equates to about 500 million tons of carbon dioxide from coal, 160 million tons of carbon dioxide from natural gas, and 10 million tons of carbon dioxide from petroleum. For a total of about 670 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions abated in 2010 alone because of these energy performance standards.