My project is in Sweden and we are having challenges with proving our equipment is Energy Star equivalent. Just this past July USGBC came out with an EBOM Alternative Compliance Path for Europe. In the text it states that electric-powered equipment can have the following labels; EU Energy Star, Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation (TCO), or Blue Angel. This is great but most challenging is proving our commercial kitchen appliances are Energy Star Equivalent as these equipment don't have any of these labels.
The ACP for Europe states that if a project wishes to demonstrate their commercial equipment is equivalent to Energy Star this information must be listed; idle energy rate, energy efficiency rate, potable water use limit, cooking energy efficiency rate, maximum daily energy consumption, energy use limit, harvest rate, and testing protocols.
Although if we use commercial dishwashers as an example. When you go to the Energy Star product website to compare what the commercial dishwasher key product criteria is. All that is listed is (depending on the machine type) high and low temperature efficiency requirements for the idle energy rate and water consumption.
Why does the ACP list so much more criteria? Can we just provide the idle energy rate and water consumption?
Barry Giles
Founder & CEO, LEED Fellow, BREEAM FellowBuildingWise LLC
LEEDuser Expert
338 thumbs up
August 29, 2013 - 12:51 pm
Jaida, This is a very thorny question that has been exacerbated by the introduction of V4 and the USGBC's push into international markets...(no doubt, and I hope so, others will chime in). With USGBC expanding into the international market the ACP's have (probably) had to be written very 'broad brush'...i.e. laying out lots of details that will cover several countries, energy codes, etc. In your specific case my first plan of attack is to provide the comparisons with the commercial dishwasher using those criteria that you CAN compare with (high/low temp, idle rate, water) and see how this works out. A great narrative could also be created showing both ends of the market. 1. That the commercial dishwasher, based on Swedish criteria is already the 'best there is', then 2, Showing that the Energy Stars brief criteria have been more than met given the few criteria created by Energy Star. (My argument tends to fall into the "how do you expect me to compare my dishwasher against criteria that don't exist within the benchmark you (GBCI) are requiring ...e.g.Energy Star?").