On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the final Version 5.3 ENERGY STAR Television specification.

The Version 5.3 specification will take effect on September 30, 2011.  This date is pushed back from July 2011 due to stakeholder feedback.

Version 5.3 modifies the Download Acquisition Mode (DAM) requirements to 40 watt-hours per day (0.04 kWh/day).  The 40 w-h/day limit is a compromise between the current 80 w-h/day limit and the 20 w-h/day limit that was originally proposed.

All materials related to the specification revision process for televisions will be available on EPA’s ENERGY STAR product development site at www.energystar.gov/RevisedSpecs under “Televisions,” although they were not yet available at the time of this posting.

Here is the deployment timeline:

• Effective immediately, manufacturers may elect to have their ENERGY STAR Certification Body (CB) certify their televisions to the Version 5.3 requirements.
• After May 31, 2011, CBs will stop certifying new product submittals to Version 4.3.  Existing certifications will remain valid until September 30, 2011.
• As of September 30, 2011, any TV shipped with an ENERGY STAR label must meet Version 5.3 requirements. 

Already, 26% of ENERGY STAR qualified products meet the 5.3 requirements, including 27% of sets larger than 50”. 

EPA plans to launch the Version 6 development effort in early 2011.