Sky-high energy prices will motivate consumers to seek out the most efficient appliances. You can attract these consumers’ attention by earning, for example, Energy Star certification in the United States. Whether or not you pursue such certifications, the United States, the European Union, and other jurisdictions require that you include a label on your white-goods product indicating its efficiency relative to competitive products. To substantiate your product's rating, you will need extensive data sets—representing voltage, current, temperature, humidity, and other parameters.
To gather that data, you will need to test your products under the allowable range of input voltage conditions and measure the input power required to maintain the proper conditions within your appliance—for example, a 0°F temperature evenly distributed throughout a refrigerator’s freezer compartment. AMETEK Programmable Power and its VTI Instruments brand offer programmable AC power sources and data-acquisition systems that you can use to make energy-efficiency measurements cost-effectively.
See the white paper How to Design a Data Acquisition System to Ensure Energy Efficiency of Appliances and White Goods Products to learn what products you can choose and find details on how to integrate them into your test system cost-effectively. The paper also comments on software ranging from off-the-shelf GUIs to custom programs that provide complete automation.
