We all visit showrooms, malls, online stores while looking for our home appliance and always notice a BEE star rating sticker on it? We still consider the one with higher ratings, but can we say that we are fully aware of it, what precisely this rating tells us. Well, BEE star ratings are enough to give a review and transparency about the product. If you want to know about it in detail, then you have come to the right place, with this rating questions arise like what BEE is, its purpose, and how to calculate it?
What is a BEE?
Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is an agency whose primary purpose is to raise awareness about how to use electricity inefficiently ways in the general public. BEE gives ratings to appliances based on their overall functioning, including points like product efficiency, quality, etc.
BEE star rating implies how efficiently an appliance can use electric Power and represent as a star rating. AC with better star rating will consume less electricity, and you will save more electricity bills in upcoming days. A method to calculate defined for every category of the appliance.
Efficiency can get identified as input by output, where information is the power consumed by a machine, and production varies from product to product. For example, in Heaters, the output is calculated by its heating capacity, while in AC’s, it is the cooling capacity of the product. Therefore, for different products available in the market, various methods of calculations are based on which a range of products is analyzed and rated accordingly.
We all know that a 5-star inverter AC will save more power and money than a 3 star AC. Therefore, we should always try to get a high BEE star rating AC like four stars or five stars as more stars imply more savings.
In fact that more functions lead more scores as well as hike in price, which implement that a 5-star inverter AC will cost you more than a 3-star inverter AC, hence one should consider all aspects(like functions you want, how much you are ready to spend etc.) before buying one. But an effective and eco-friendly investment in starting would save a considerable amount in electricity bills.
BEE has been rating appliances (like AC’s, Heaters, refrigerators, etc.). For a long time and also, the government has made it essential for all the large and known appliances brands to mention their BEE rating such that the consumers can have transparency for the product they are about to buy. Also, for a person, it’s easy to judge a product by just looking at its rating instead of reading the full product manual.
Now the question arises consumers’ minds is how the Bureau of Energy Efficiency calculates BEE rating?
Answer to it isn’t that complicated as it looks like, it’s quite easy to calculate and understand. But before calculating the BEE star rating, we should be aware of the terms EER, ISEER value, and the difference between them.
Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) and generally given to the fixed speed compressor (non-inverter) Air conditioners. EER of an AC is defined as Amount of heat removed in an hour (which depends upon factors like the efficiency of AC, room temperature and humidity) by the Power consumed (electricity supply) in the same hour which implies,
EER Value = Amount of heat removed in an hour / Power consumed in the same hour
The second term in highlight is IISER which stands for Indian Seasonal Energy Efficient Ratio and gets calculated as the ratio of Cooling seasonal total load to energy consumption in the mentioned season which implies,
ISEER Value = Cooling Seasonal Total Load (CSTL) / Cooling Seasonal Energy Consumption (CSEC).
The calculation method of ISEER and EER are almost the same with a slight difference. ISEER takes note of the seasonal temperature changes and the variable power consumption by an inverter type AC while EER is for non- inverter type of AC’s and considers the temperature at a particular time.
Now, there is a direct relation between BEE star rating with EER/ISEER value, which signifies that higher the EER or ISEER value gives more BEE star rating, and directly referring to more electricity savings with less electricity bill.
Does BEE check efficiency for all products?
Then the answer is no; BEE doesn’t test each appliance before issuing a rating as they judge products based on samples submitted by the manufacturer. At first place and brands to have their reputation to maintain; hence they wouldn’t gain anything by cheating their customers/ consumers with a pseudo efficiency rating.
Why should you look at star labels while buying appliances?
A higher star rating means more efficient an appliance is, which means a lower electricity bill every month. In most households, multiple gadgets consume a lot of electricity (it could be you Air Conditioner, Refrigerator, Water Heater) and lead to a huge bill. Therefore, BEE ratings should get considered to keep the electricity bill low, and your happiness level high.
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