A fluorescent lamp, often known as a fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that produces visible light by fluorescence. An electric current in the gas stimulates mercury vapor, which creates short-wave ultraviolet light, which causes the lamp's phosphor coating to glow. In comparison to an incandescent lamp, a fluorescent lamp turns electrical energy into useable light far more efficiently. Fluorescent lighting systems have a luminous efficacy of 50–100 lumens per watt, which is several times that of incandescent bulbs with equivalent light intensity.

What is the importance of BEE?

The main objective of the BEE star labeling scheme is to ensure that the end consumers of India get high-energy efficiency products.

In May 2006, the Minister of Power launched a star labeling program to make electrical appliances more energy efficient. Under the province of this scheme, total of 30 products are covered. From which 10 are covered under mandatory scheme and 20 under a voluntary scheme.

Mandatory Product List

Voluntary Product List

What Does The Star Rating Mean?

Any buyer willing to buy a BEE registered product can identify the product's energy efficiency just by looking at the number of stars the label on the product has. More the stars, the more energy-efficient is the product and the more electricity it will save. 

A 5 star rated product has the highest efficiency and the 1 star rated product has the lowest efficiency. 

The star label acts as an energy efficiency guide for the end consumer or buyer. However, in the market, the price of the 5 star rated products is on the high side as compared to the 1 star or 2 star rated products. But in the long term, the high efficient product saves you more money on your electricity bills.

BEE Registration Process

The entire BEE registration process is categorized in three major steps, which include online fillings and hardcopy submission. The entire lifecycle of getting your product registered with BEE involves company registration followed with product testing and model approval. Below is a brief description of the process involved on each step of registration.

Company Registration: The very first step of star labelling registration is to get the company registered with the BEE on their online portal. Any manufacturer/importer/trader who wishes to apply under the scheme has to undergo this step. The registration process involves submission of mandatory documents and details of the applicant. Documents such as ISO 9001, Trademark, COI, Authorisation letter etc are required to be uploaded at the time of online filling. Also, the applicant needs to submit the hardcopy originals to the Bureau of Energy office.

Apart from the online filling, the applicant needs to pay a fees of 1, 00,000/- (If the applicant is a large scale industry) or 25,000/- (If the applicant is a MSME).

Testing: Once the company registration application is approved by the bureau, the applicant receives login credentials for his portal over the registered email ID. Using the same the applicant can fill out the model registration application. However, before proceeding with the model registration process, the applicant needs to get his products tested from a NABL accredited lab or from an ILAC MRA lab. The test report must be as per the BEE-defined format and must consist of all the testing parameters. For product testing, the applicant needs to share the testing documents along with the product sample as prescribed by the testing facility. Also, before applying for the model registration, it must be cross-checked that the LAB reports issue date is not greater than 90 days. 

Model Registration: Once the testing is complete, the applicant can now apply for model registration on the online BEE portal. The registration requires mandatory documents in a specified format along with the test report (not older than 90 days). Once all the documents and details are uploaded online along with a sample label. A fees of INR 2000 is to be paid to the bureau. 

Once the application is submitted online, all the hardcopy originals along with online application and payment receipt are to submit to the department.

The department scrutinizes all the submitted and received documents to provide the final license to the applicant. 

Validity for BEE Registration

The BEE validity is dependent upon the labelling period which is released by the bureau. For example the current labelling period for Variable Air Conditioner is 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2023, hence before 31st December 2023, the applicant has two options, either to degrade its star rating or to renew the same star rating as per the new released table by making necessary changes in their product and enhance its efficiency.

Sample Label and Labelling Period

Energy efficiency labels are mandatory labels affixed to a registered product, describing its energy efficiency and consumption. A star rating, ranging from 1 to 5 in the ascending order of energy efficiency is provided to the permitted and products registered with the Bureau.  

A label period is the duration prescribed by BEE for which the star rating of a product is valid. When the label period for a particular product is revised by the department, the star rating calculation table and energy performance criteria for the product also upgrades.