Verification Testing of Products

ENERGY STAR certified products are subject to post-market verification testing administered by certification bodies. Consistent with EPA’s disqualification procedures, product models that fail verification testing are disqualified from using the ENERGY STAR label.

• All ENERGY STAR certified products are subject to post-market verification testing (VT) administered by CBs, irrespective of when they were initially certified. Brand owners must be responsive to CB requests for information and payment for this testing. A summary of brand owner and CB verification testing responsibilities is here.
• The minimum percentage of unique products subject to verification testing (PDF, 386 KB) varies by product category, from 5% to 20%. A CB makes its selections from the list of products it has certified; an individual brand owner’s testing rate may be higher or lower than the minimum in a given year.
• Multiple models associated with one test report and certification, such as model families or privately labeled products will be treated as one unique model for VT product nomination and testing results. More than one such model will not be subject to verification testing in the same year.
• Maintaining accurate product availability information with a CB may reduce a brand owner’s testing burden and make product selection and procurement easier. If a selected product is not available at the time of procurement, the CB will replace it with another selection from that brand owner, if possible.
• Verification testing must be conducted at a third-party lab in North America, unless a CB has received an exception from EPA.
• Brand owners can dispute the results of a test failure before a product is disqualified from the program. EPA’s disqualification procedures are here (PDF, 182 KB).
• Disqualified products are listed on the ENERGY STAR integrity page.