Consumer Products
NEEA works throughout the supply chain to bring energy-efficient home appliances and electronics to market, expanding consumer choices for products that perform well and save energy.
Expanding Consumer Choices for More Efficient Products
The consumer products market represents a crucial segment for NEEA due to their substantial energy savings contributions and because they are part of every household in the region. Think of anything that gets plugged into the wall at home – that’s a consumer product. NEEA’s consumer products Market Transformation efforts make incremental improvements across a variety of product categories that are common in homes throughout the Northwest. When those small changes are multiplied by the 6 million households in the Northwest – and the 124 million homes across the U.S. – the results are significant energy savings.
NEEA works with manufacturers, distributors, physical and online retailers, contractors, and installers to identify opportunities and build business cases for energy-efficient products. Thanks to NEEA’s Market Transformation efforts, more efficient refrigerators, clothes washers, TVs, and other consumer products are on the market.
An Efficient Future in Store: Building Scale for Retail Product Efficiency
To ensure that efficient products are stocked and available for purchase in stores across the country, NEEA manages the national ENERGY STAR® Retail Products Platform (ESRPP).
ESRPP is a scalable and influential nationwide Market Transformation collaborative that works with regional and national retailers’ unique business priorities. Key to the success of ESRPP, participating retailers provide the program with comprehensive, category-level sales data to help the alliance identify and target the greatest opportunities for efficiency.
By gaining access to tens of millions of discrete sales transactions, the alliance is equipped with powerful insights into consumer behavior and market trends that influence manufacturer product development and retailer stocking practices. This data also reveals strategic opportunities to evolve product efficiency for Northwest consumers.
One way NEEA uses the data is to develop new product test procedures that more accurately reflect the way consumers actually use the latest technologies. This analysis informs specification advancements that permanently raise the performance baseline for the products Northwest consumers bring into their homes
As of 2024, participating ESRPP retailers account for 75 percent of all U.S. appliance sales, while the program’s utility sponsors represent 30 million households across the country, including more than 6 million homes in the Northwest.
75% of U.S. appliance sales
30 million households nationally
6 million Northwest homes
Collaborative Efforts Drive ESRPP Market Transformation Success
The alliance leads the ESRPP by collaborating directly with major manufacturers and retailers to elevate consumer choice, household product efficiency, stocking practices, product test procedures, specifications and federal standards. The innovative, comprehensive ESRPP utilizes the alliance’s proven Market Transformation strategies to intervene in the market to create lasting change by:
- Providing retailers with midstream incentives when they stock the most efficient ENERGY STAR products across a variety of categories.
- Supporting retailer merchandising efforts, including through product training and promotion.
- Collecting category-level sales data from retailers representing tens of millions of transactions.
- Utilizing the data to 1) measure and adjust ESRPP and other Market Transformation strategies, and 2) influence product test procedures, specifications and federal standards.
- Educating customers on making purchases that are high quality and save energy.
Each year, ENERGY STAR certified products help Americans save nearly 240 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and avoid $24 billion in energy costs. (Source: Environmental Protection Agency, 2025)
2024 ESRPP Product Portfolio:
| Product | Basic (e.g. ENERGY STAR) | Advanced (e.g. Most Efficient) |
|---|---|---|
| Clothes Dryers | • | • |
| Clothes Washers | • | • |
| All-in-One Washer/Dryer Combo | • | • |
| Freezers | • | • |
| Refrigerators | • | • |
| Room Air Conditioners | • | • |
| Room Air Cleaners | • | • |
| Connected Thermostats | • | |
| Residential Electric Cooking | • | • |
| Televisions <50″ | • | |
| Televisions ≥ 50″ | • | |
| Heat Pump Water Heaters | • |
National Scale, Regional Value
Midstream market interventions are crucial to NEEA’s Market Transformation efforts. By partnering with national retailers like Best Buy, Costco, Home Depot and Lowe’s, NEEA is able to seamlessly integrate their needs into its Retail Products Portfolio program. This collaboration builds the scale needed to enhance energy efficiency in consumer products, making efficient options more accessible and affordable for Northwest consumers. Watch the video to learn more.
Decade-Long Effort Ensures Efficient, High-Performing Televisions in the U.S
Over the past decade, NEEA has dedicated significant efforts to ensure that all televisions sold in the U.S. are not only more energy-efficient but also maintain high performance standards. Through a shared commitment to innovation, NEEA and national television manufacturers have collaboratively developed and adopted voluntary product standards and testing methods that have led to the production of high-quality televisions with advanced features that consume less power than a 60-watt light bulb – lowering energy bills for consumers. Watch the video to learn more.
Shaping Product Strategy with Market Analysis
The ENERGY STAR Retail Products Platform (ESRPP) leverages broad national retail incentives to promote stocking and sales of efficient products and get access to full category data. In turn, this allows the program to influence manufacturers’ product investments, support improved test procedures, and use comprehensive data to inform standards and specifications.
Explore Other Markets
Lighting
NEEA works across the commercial lighting market to ensure that Northwest homes and businesses see the benefits of energy-efficient lighting technologies.
Water Heating
NEEA’s work in the water heating market helps deliver efficient, high-performance solutions tailored for Northwest consumers that enhance everyday comfort.