When staff with the Government Accountability Office sent in made-up claims about a gas-powered alarm clock, Energy Star certified it as energy efficient without any questions.

When the GAO sent in bogus specifications about a geothermal heat pump, stating it was 20 percent more efficient than existing products, the heat pump sailed through the Energy Star approval process as well.

In all, the GAO made up four different companies, and invented 20 imaginary products last year — and 15 of them were approved by Energy Star, a program designed to certify energy-efficient products from air conditioners to light bulbs to televisions.

The government report illustrated flaws with the Energy Star verification process and its reliance on information from manufacturers, the report’s author said. But consumer advocates said while there are problems with the Energy Star program, it still generally provides good information, and improvements are being made.

And for Oregonians, there is an additional tool to determine energy efficiency by checking appliances for Energy Trust of Oregon certification.

Energy efficiency is something that customers at Standard TV and Appliance look for when they’re shopping for appliances and electronics, said T.J. Gaskins with the Bend store.

“It’s a big thing right now. I would say at least 75 percent of the people who come in here are looking for Energy Star,” Gaskins said. “They like to save money, and they like to do their part.”

The Energy Star program, run by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, is designed to help consumers identify products that are at least 10 percent more efficient than federal requirements.

People could believe that the government verifies those efficiency claims, said Greg Kutz, managing director of the GAO’s forensic audit and special investigations team.

“Our investigation shows that that, for many products, is not true,” Kutz said. “It is really just a representation of what the manufacturer said. There’s no independent validation.”

An Energy Star official did not return calls for comment last week, but a statement on the program’s Web site said the EPA and Energy Department are stepping up their testing of products and enforcement of companies that violate the rules.

Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, has tested appliances and found inconsistencies between some of its independent tests and manufacturers’ reports on how much energy products use, and whether they qualify for Energy Star, said Shannon Baker-Branstetter, policy analyst with the organization.

A recent Consumer Reports test of freezers, for example, found that one freezer with the Energy Star label actually used 70 percent more electricity than the manufacturer claimed.

The program needs more independent certification that the products are as efficient as manufacturers claim, she said — and it appears that federal agencies are taking steps in that direction.

The Department of Energy is planning to start testing six of the most popular types of appliances, Baker-Branstetter noted, including refrigerators, dishwashers and air conditioners. And the agency will add to that list in coming months to verify that models labeled with the Energy Star logo meet the requirements.

“I’m definitely hopeful in the next couple years we’ll see more improvement,” she said.

And even though Consumer Reports found some products use more energy than they claim, the Energy Star program is still the best way consumers have to gauge efficiency, Baker-Branstetter said.

“Given the number of tests we do, the number of problems is still relatively small,” she said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily indicative that consumers should be afraid of buying Energy Star.”

If people are shopping for efficient goods, they should still look for the Energy Star label, she said.

Beyond Energy Star

Consumers also can compare products themselves using the yellow Energy Guide tags that show how much electricity a product uses.

If the appliance uses water — like a dishwasher or a washing machine — people can look at the Water Sense tag to determine how water-friendly it is.

Consumers can do some fact-checking themselves, Baker-Branstetter added, by examining their power bills after buying an item. Although there are many factors that go into a home’s electricity use, if people replace a 10-year-old fridge with an energy-efficient model, they can probably expect to see improvements.

If customers don’t notice a change, she said, they can write to the Consumers Union or the Department of Energy, which can collect complaints and possibly do additional testing.

Energy Trust

Oregonians looking for products that are easy on electric bills also can check appliances for certification from the Energy Trust of Oregon, which often has stricter standards, said Kendall Youngblood, residential sector manager with the organization.

For example, Energy Trust offers rebates for clothes washers that have a modified energy factor, a unit of efficiency, of 2.2.

Energy Star-labeled products are only required to have a modified energy factor of 1.8, meaning they can be less efficient.

Energy Trust is a nonprofit organization that customers of certain utilities, including Pacific Power and Cascade Natural Gas, fund through a percentage of their utility bill. The organization supports energy efficiency and renewable-energy projects, and provides rebates for some energy-efficient products.

Energy Trust has tighter standards than Energy Star for most major appliances, she said — in part because for items like clothes washers, the majority of the washing machines on the market have improved to where they meet Energy Star standards.

The federal program plans to raise its standards to make it harder for washing machines to earn the Energy Star label, she said, but in the meantime, Energy Trust wants to provide incentives for people to choose the most efficient products available.

Energy Trust also has conducted surveys of consumer bills after people have installed new devices, to see if energy use dropped, she said.

And Youngblood said that although the GAO pointed out some flaws with Energy Star, the program does help save energy — the equivalent of taking 30 million cars off the road. The flaws “… are really small compared to the number of products out there,” she said.