Energy Star :: Environment Environmental Papers Fossils

Energy featureAn analysis of the Gross internal Product (GDP) per capita for 1989 in United States Dollars compared to the 1991 total energy consumed per capita in akin barrels of anoint for several countries, found the United States and Canada guilty for having the largest oil consumption per capita at fifty-five barrels dapple producing a troika slight than the leading country, Switzerland, in GDP per capita. Switzerland, the poster boy, of efficiency manages to asseverate more than the United States per capita while consuming half the amount of oil. (Ristinen and Kraushaar, 1999, 6) These dumbfounding figures present the United States as a wasteful nation plagued by inefficiency. Therefore, it was no surprise when in 1992 the Environmental Protection Agency began a program called Energy Star whose goal was and still is to promote and come in energy efficient point of intersections that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The idea down Energy Star was to reduce United St ates consumption of fossil fuels, while also making the change economically sound to Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public, thereby increasing United States overall efficiency. The program started out small, targeting electronic devices much(prenominal) as computers and monitors, and then snowballed into undertaking household appliances, lighting, and even businesses and homes. The mechanism on which Energy Star operates is based on an Energy Star cross off that is placed on appliances, devices, and anything approved by the program. This label lets consumers know that the product meets certain Energy Star efficiency guidelines that vary based on the category. However, the Energy Star program was and still is purely voluntary, meaning manufacturers harbor the option whether or not to generate products that meet Energy Star efficiency guidelines. Some of the first devices that carried the Energy Star label were goggle boxs, VCRs, and audio frequency equipment. These devices along with a h oax of others such as copy machines, facsimile machine machines, DVD players, printers, and computers, consume energy while they are not in use or in understudy humour. For the purposes of this paper, the term standby mode will be defined as the state of any electronic device that is plugged into a household power source, but has its power function turned off. Therefore, in an effort to increase efficiency, any electronic device that carries the Energy Star label will consume less energy during its standby mode. For example, in the case of a television that usually consumes six watts of electricity in standby, an Energy Star labeled television will consume fewer than three watts of electricity in its standby mode, which cuts its energy consumption in half during non-working hours.