Commercial customers in California lack support when purchasing advanced energy efficiency products and distributed energy resources. These decisions are complex and reliable product performance information, particularly for comparing specific products, can be difficult to find. Yet, these customers are crucial to advancing the state’s electrification and energy efficiency goals.
The Empower Procurement Product Evaluation Hub (Product Evaluation Hub: Product Testing for Smarter Purchasing) aims to ease the challenges that commercial entities face when locating and selecting energy efficient technologies by providing rigorous and unbiased evaluations of products in an easy-to-use, actionable format. With funding from the California Energy Commission, independent performance evaluations were conducted for commercial energy efficient technologies spanning 18 categories. Testing was conducted according to established protocols by independent facilities at UC Davis, including the WCEC, and its partners (Energy Solutions, Center for the Built Environment, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab).
Product testing results are compiled on the Empower Procurement Product Evaluation Hub website, along with technical specifications and energy and cost impact information, for over 100 products. The Hub offers this information as a free, Consumer Reports-style resource that requires no login or subscription. Users of the Hub website can view both high-level introductions to product categories and specific product details. Products can be filtered by key features and can be directly compared based on technical specifications and performance data, all with no ads and no endorsements of products or brands.
With product testing and creation of the website now complete, WCEC researchers are conducting outreach to get this resource into the hands of those who could benefit from it in sectors such as Government, K-12 Education, Energy Consultation, and Higher Education.