Energy Efficient Products

GE Consumer & Industrial Receives EPA/DOE 2007 ENERGY STAR® Sustained Excellence Award

Louisville, Ky., March 1, 2007 — The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have awarded GE Consumer & Industrial the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year "Sustained Excellence" award for the second year in a row in recognition of GE's outstanding commitment to creating high–performance household appliance and lighting products that help reduce energy spending and protect the environment.

GE will officially be recognized at a March 21 ceremony in Washington D.C. This is also the fourth year GE has been recognized as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year. "Partners like GE are outstanding leaders in protecting our environment through energy efficiency," said Bill Wehrum, acting assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation. "As one of the 2007 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence winners, GE has taken energy efficiency to new heights year after year and we all benefit."

GE has aggressively supported the ENERGY STAR program through broad consumer and customer education and has participated in national and regional events promoting ENERGY STAR products to consumers, customers and homebuilders.

"GE's energy–efficient products also play a key role in our ecomaginationSM initiative," said James P. Campbell, President and Chief Executive Officer of GE Consumer & Industrial. "This initiative, which launched in 2005, focuses on harnessing GE's imagination to bring new technologies to market that help solve challenges like reducing green house gas emissions and stretching increasingly limited energy resources."

ENERGY STAR Appliances

From 2002–2006, GE invested more than $405 million to develop and bring to market high–efficiency appliances products. A broad range of GE Monogram®, GE Profile™, GE®, and Hotpoint® brand clothes washers, refrigerators, dishwashers, room air conditioners, dehumidifiers and water products are ENERGY STAR qualified. In 2006 alone, GE invested $55 million in ENERGY STAR appliance models to create 309 new models — up 31% over 2005.

Currently, GE Consumer & Industrial offers 519 ENERGY STAR qualified appliances, representing 50% of all GE appliance products. This offering includes:

  • ENERGY–STAR qualified dishwashers. One of the most innovative products on the market is the ENERGY STAR qualified GE Profile™ dishwasher with SmartDispense™ technology, which allows the dishwasher door to hold an entire 45 fluid ounce bottle of liquid or gel dishwasher detergent and dispense just the right amount for each wash. If all Americans used ENERGY STAR qualified GE Profile dishwashers, more than 20 billion gallons of water would be saved per year — enough to fill 25,000 Olympic swimming pools.
  • ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerators. Innovations like dual–evaporator technology improve energy efficiency and food freshness. ENERGY STAR qualified GE refrigerators use 40% less energy than conventional models sold in 2001, and about 50% less than models manufactured before 1993.
  • ENERGY STAR qualified washers. GE topload washers with automatic temperature controls and more energy–efficient drain pumps and motors now use less water. And the GE frontload washer saves up to 23 gallons per average–size load, or 61% less water*.
  • ENERGY Star qualified room air conditioners. GE offers consumers plenty of cool choices when shopping for room air conditioners. Replacing a 10–year–old room air conditioner with a new GE ENERGY STAR qualified model means consumers can save up to 25% in operating costs and they will use at least 10% less energy than with conventional new models.
ENERGY STAR Lighting Products

GE Energy Smart™ Light Bulbs with Compact Fluorescent technology (CFLs) are ENERGY STAR qualified — offering energy savings of up to 75% and lasting up to 10 times longer than a standard incandescent. In 2006, more than 99% of GE Energy Smart™ Bulbs sold were ENERGY STAR qualified.

In addition, GE Consumer & Industrial's Lighting division offers 67 ENERGY STAR qualified lighting products, making GE a leader in energy–efficient lighting products.

GE works closely with major retailers to drive awareness of Energy Smart bulbs through broad consumer and customer outreach campaigns and is an avid supporter of the ENERGY STAR "Change a light, Change the World" Campaign.

In 2006, 99.7% of screw–in CFL products sold by GE were Energy Star qualified. Over their lifetime, the ENERGY STAR qualified lighting products that GE sold in 2006 will reduce consumers' electricity costs by $1.3 billion and prevent one trillion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions by power plants, the equivalent of removing eight million cars from the road for one year.

*As compared to a typical washer, WWSE5240

GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliance, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies and "ecomagination," a GE initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE) brings imagination to work, selling products under the Monogram®, Profile™ GE®, Hotpoint®, SmartWater™ Reveal®, Edison™ and Energy Smart™ consumer brands, and Entellisys™ industrial brand. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.

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