Checktesting

The E₃ Committee conducts a national "checktesting" program to provide the community and stakeholders with data on accuracy of the labelling scheme and compliance by suppliers. It is the quality assurance element that ensures that the labelling and MEPS scheme maintains high levels of credibility both with consumers and manufacturers. Appliances are purchased from retail outlets or obtained anonymously and tested in NATA accredited independent laboratories to verify the claims associated with the energy label for six appliance types and minimum energy performance standards where applicable.

E₃ has included a check testing program since 1991. From modest beginnings, the national program now tests as many as 100 products per year. Units are not randomly selected for check testing, rather sophisticated selection criteria and market intelligence are used to target testing towards units more likely to fail. A detailed description of the checktesting process (extracted from the Administrative Guidelines) is included here for reference.

As part of the National Greenhouse Strategy, the E₃ Committee allocates around a quarter of its budget (in excess of $300,000 in 2002) to conduct checktesting in laboratories and related testing used for standards development and round robins. The E₃ Committee measures compliance on a regular basis and benchmarks against overseas results. The E₃ Committee and its program partners are justifiably proud of the program's compliance levels, which are amongst the best in the world. The E₃ Committee and its program partners, however, recognise that we must continue to strive to improve those products that fail. Especially in circumstances where governments are imposing additional costs on all suppliers to meet energy labelling and MEPS, the E₃ Committee is committed to promoting products sold by suppliers who comply with the program.

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This page last modified 15 February 2007