Are wine coolers/chillers/refrigerators eligible for Energy Star

Hi Haley,

Interesting question! I did some digging and I'm still a little confused, I'll be honest. Here's what I found:

1. EnergyStar's "Refrigerators & Freezers Key Product Criteria" website says (www.energystar.gov/products/appliances/refrigerators/key_product_criteria.): "Products meeting the definition of an Electric Refrigerator, Electric Refrigerator-Freezer, or Freezer, including compact and built-in products are eligible for ENERGY STAR certification. Wine refrigerators and other products that do not meet the definition of an Electric Refrigerator or Electric Refrigerator-Freezer are not eligible for certification."

See the following for the referenced definition: www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/specs/private/ENERGY%20STAR%20Fin...

2. There's some additional information in this report from April 2014: www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/asset/document/ENERGY_STAR_Scopin....

I think there's two ways to read this. The first is - if the wine refrigerator meets the definition of "an Electric Refrigerator, Electric Refrigerator-Freezer, or Freezer", then it's eligible for the EnergyStar (and that's why you're seeing some products that carry the certification). The second way to read it is - they're saying that wine refrigerators never meet the definition and so they are not eligible.

I think you could try contacting EnergyStar directly if you want a final answer on this. For LEED purposes, the reviewer should accept the wine refrigerator as compliant if you can provide a product data sheet showing that the item is EnergyStar certified (even if you're not finding it in the database). If it's the reviewer's position that the product is not eligible for the EnergyStar label, they'll ask you to remove the item from your LEED calculations entirely, which means it won't actively count against you.

I hope this helps! And if you do end up getting some insight from EnergyStar I'd love to hear it.