Strictly speaking, ENERGY STAR is not a rating. It is a pass/fail certification label. ENERGY STAR is an internationally recognized voluntary labeling program for energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, and manufacturing plants, managed jointly by the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy. A product either meets the efficiency specification for its category and may carry the blue label, or it does not. There are no stars to count and no letter grades. People often conflate it with two real rating scales: the yellow EnergyGuide label in the U.S., which shows estimated annual cost, and the EU energy label, which grades A to G.

Background and who runs it

EPA established ENERGY STAR in 1992 under the Clean Air Act, and DOE's role was formalized in 1996. The program's scale is significant: according to EPA's most recent annual report, participants conserved 520 billion kilowatt-hours, saved $42 billion on utility bills, and avoided 400 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2020.

The program has been through a turbulent period. After proposals to defund it, Congress provided $33 million in FY 2026 funding for EPA to administer ENERGY STAR, and an updated Memorandum of Agreement signed by EPA and DOE on March 3, 2026 established DOE as the lead federal agency. The agreement runs ten years and triggered a 90-day transition of partnerships, IT systems, and databases to DOE's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation. For manufacturers and buyers the label itself is unchanged; the letterhead behind it is moving.

How a display earns the label

Displays fall under two specifications, both hosted at energystar.gov.

Monitors and signage: Displays Version 8.0. Finalized May 2, 2019, effective January 28, 2020. The core test measures On Mode power against a maximum allowance calculated from screen area and measured luminance. The spec includes allowances that recognize efficient implementations of HDR, wider color gamut, wide viewing angles, and USB-C power delivery, so a USB-C hub monitor is not penalized for the power it passes through to a laptop. Sleep and Off mode limits are tested per IEC 62301. Automatic brightness control (ABC) must be enabled by default if the product relies on it to pass.

Televisions: Version 9.0 and 9.1. Version 9.0 took effect October 20, 2022, and TVs certified to it save more than 34% over a typical model. The important engineering change was the test method: rather than measuring power at a static luminance, Version 9 uses a camera photometer method that measures screen-average dynamic luminance, which closes the loophole where a TV could pass with a dim default picture mode. Version 9.1 (effective April 14, 2023) aligned the test with DOE's Uniform Test Method in 10 CFR Part 430 Appendix H, which in turn follows ANSI/CTA-2037-D, so ENERGY STAR and federal reporting now use the same procedure.

Certification and enforcement. Since 2011 the label requires third-party certification. Test labs and certification bodies must be accredited under ISO/IEC 17011 by an ILAC or IAF signatory, and certification bodies must conduct annual, manufacturer-funded verification testing on a percentage of certified models, at least half selected at random. A model that fails is delisted. A separate ENERGY STAR Most Efficient designation, refreshed yearly, marks the top tier within a category.

Engineering perspective

Three things I see from the factory side that buyers rarely hear about:

• Luminance is the whole game. Power in an LCD is dominated by the backlight, and in an OLED by average picture level. The ENERGY STAR test runs the product in its default, out-of-box picture mode. That is why default modes are often set at 150 to 200 nits with ABC on, and why the spec prohibits on-screen language that nudges users toward disabling energy-saving features. Turn on a Vivid preset and the certified number no longer applies.
• The label is a floor, not a comparison. Two certified 27-inch monitors can differ by 30 to 40% in actual consumption. The ENERGY STAR product finder lists measured On Mode watts and annual kWh for each model, which is the number worth comparing.
• Panel technology changes the equation. MiniLED backlights with local dimming and tandem OLED both reduce average power at a given perceived brightness, which is one reason newer premium panels certify more easily than their peak-brightness figures suggest. The HDR allowance in Displays 8.0 was written before these panels were common, and the next revision is expected to revisit it.

Bottom line

An ENERGY STAR label on a monitor or TV means the specific model, in its default settings, passed a standardized power test administered by an accredited third party and remains subject to random re-testing. It is a binary certification, not a graded score. The program now sits under DOE's leadership following the March 2026 agreement, with the technical specifications, product database, and label unchanged. For actual consumption figures, use the product finder rather than the logo, and remember that any number you see was measured in the default picture mode.