In today's rapidly evolving world of energy efficiency, another set of changes are on the horizon. The United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR® program is sunsetting its lighting certifications for specified lamps and luminaries, effective December 31, 2024. To better understand this transition and its implications, we spoke with Taylor Jantz-Sell from the EPA. She shares a little about her career, unpacks what this certification sunsetting means, and what consumers can expect moving forward.
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, can you tell us a little about yourself?
Of course! My name is Taylor Jantz-Sell. I work for the United States Environmental Protection Agency as the ENERGY STAR® Products Program Lead for lighting, fans, smart home and equitable upgrades.
We’re excited to learn more from you today. How long have you been working in the efficiency industry and what do you enjoy most?
I've worked on ENERGY STAR® lighting products since 2007 and over the years expanded to management of fan products and smart energy management systems. I created the ENERGY STAR® Smart Home Energy Management Systems (SHEMS) specification when utilities were looking for replacements to lighting in their energy efficiency portfolios. The ENERGY STAR SHEMS specification consists of a combination of devices and software that work together for whole home energy savings based on occupancy. A large focus of my job now that lighting is largely going away is supporting programs, methods and services that equitably and effectively overcome barriers to efficient electrification faced by overburdened households.
Working on efficient lighting has been a ride! The challenges of bringing promising new technology to the market and trying to make sure consumers have a positive experience with it, is not an easy task. We had a massive network of partners and stakeholders dedicated to this goal and it was pretty amazing to bring everyone together to make this program a success. No other product in our program's history has offered so much energy savings for so little investment. I wrote this paper in 2017 that talks about the history and transition to LED lighting before the federal standards were finished. It’s a little outdated but provides a nice history of the program and contains some tips for purchasing lighting products that still may be helpful.
You’ve led some impressive projects. Thank you for sharing your paper with us as well. Can you explain the ENERGY STAR® lighting certification that currently exists?
What remains eligible for ENERGY STAR® lighting certification are decorative light strings (think wired patio or holiday string lights) and downlights which is essentially the term we used to capture the products that make up the evolution of the recessed can light. These lighting products are not regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy, and even in long lasting LED formats, continue to represent a large volume of the lighting market. Additionally, as we found, there is still a large differentiation in efficiency and performance in the market.
The lighting industry asked us to continue to label these products and when we evaluated the impact we could have on energy savings for just these lights it was significant. If all downlights and downlight retrofit kits sold in the United States were ENERGY STAR® certified with efficacy > 82 lumens per watt, the energy cost savings would grow to more than: $1 billion each year, save more than 12 billion kWh and prevent more than 18 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to the emissions from more than 1.8 million vehicles.
Those are some seriously significant savings! With that understanding, can you explain to us why ENERGY STAR® is sunsetting the certification for certain light bulbs?
Under certain circumstances, the EPA makes the determination that an ENERGY STAR® specification for a particular product category should be sunset rather than revised. Some or all of the following factors play into such a decision:
- Additional cost-effective efficiency gains are not available or anticipated.
- A standard exists or is forthcoming at the current ENERGY STAR® level that will serve as a backstop, so efficiency gains are maintained.
- The market has evolved such that the product type is being discontinued.
For residential lighting products, EPA anticipates that, in addition to the backstop, upcoming new efficiency standards will capture the bulk of existing cost-effective efficiency gains. You can read more in our proposal and final memos on our sunset page.
What does this mean for consumers who currently have ENERGY® certified lighting products?
They can rest assured that they made good choices and enjoy the long-lasting high-quality performance and energy savings for many years. When it's time to replace those lights, they can look to the same brands they chose before. The Lighting Facts label on the light bulb packages will be there to provide information on brightness, light color or appearance, longevity and energy cost.
I think that’s helpful for customers looking to understand this more. Thank you! What are some of your favorite energy-efficient products that homeowners should consider installing?
You can still find the trusted blue ENERGY STAR® label on more than 70 product categories. Heat pumps are all the rage right now, and heat pump water heaters while pricey up front pay for themselves in about 3 years for a household of four.
When it comes to those pricier purchases like heat pump water heaters and heat pump HVAC we have a new Home Savings Finder tool that shows tax incentives, Inflation Reduction Act rebates and local utility rebates. Additional resources for covering the cost of energy efficiency upgrades for qualifying households are also available.
We have some other new resources to help make some of those more complex and larger purchasing decisions that we continue to expand as well.
We’re grateful to Taylor for taking the time to answer some of our questions. Light bulbs like Simply Conserve are RoHS Compliant, UL and FCC certified, and will continue to meet or exceed the efficiency levels from the sunset ENERGY STAR specification. Utilities and homeowners alike can continue to use and trust their favorite brands.
To see the latest from Simply Conserve’s residential lighting offering, browse this category.