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Lisa Reider
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Finding Accuracy in Numbers

BLI Investigates Published TEC Values

Dec 15, 2015 11:22:28 AM

An inquiry from a bliQ subscriber regarding differences between BLI’s published TEC values (kWh/week) and those published on the US ENERGY STAR database recently prompted a small investigation into the values and why such differences could occur. While BLI is certified to perform ENERGY STAR’s TEC test, the values published on bliQ are gathered from vendor websites by BLI’s database department. Products still considered current are periodically updated for changes. But if a change occurs and BLI’s database department is not notified directly, it may take some time for bliQ to reflect the update. And some vendors do not include TEC values on their product specifications. 

Once this issue was brought to our attention, we randomly selected some A4 products from a few printer vendors and found several differences. We asked the product vendors and ENERGY STAR to help us figure out the differences. In some cases, we were told that the differences were simple rounding errors. Indeed, many of the TEC values BLI sampled were off by a factor 0.1 from the ENERGY STAR numbers. In other cases, ENERGY STAR says the differences might be due to product improvements since the original launch that were not communicated to the certification body. Another possibility might be the publication of the 115V TEC value on the product website and the publication of the 230V TEC value in ENERGY STAR’s database, for example. Both are correct, but the voltage difference might not be communicated to the reader. In any case, end users have to take these numbers with a grain of salt and remember that today’s numbers are not constant. Changes can occur at any time in a product’s life cycle. And given the large array of A3 and A4 products that fall under TEC’s document imaging umbrella, those changes might take some time to trickle down to databases such as bliQ or ENERGY STAR. And although ENERGY STAR says it receives updates from certification facilities on a regular basis, they do not always have data on the latest product launches. 

So the moral of the story is to check multiple sources. But if all else fails, it’s still a good indicator of energy efficiency or environmental friendliness if the device already has an ENERGY STAR, Blue Angel or EPEAT label. And of course, if the device recently won a BLI Outstanding Achievement in Energy Efficiency award (Winter 2016 award announcements coming in January) or a 5-star rating for energy efficiency in a BLI environmental test report, then you’re sure to have an energy-efficient device.