January 2016

Today, the Appliance Standards Rulemaking and Federal Advisory Committee (ASRAC) approved an agreement reached by manufacturers and efficiency advocates to set the first-ever national standards for wine chillers and other beverage coolers. The new standards will reduce energy use by 75% relative to the least-efficient products on the market.

The final few weeks of 2015 proved busy ones for new national appliance and equipment standards. The Department of Energy (DOE) completed the biggest energy-saving standard in agency history, along with several important but lower-profile standards which will collectively yield large energy and economic savings. Some of them point the way to much larger future savings.