Almost exactly two years after the Energy Star program for solid-door refrigerators was launched, and literally two weeks after the new standard for steamers had been unveiled, it was fryers’ turn. The new specs were finalized in mid-August of 2003 and announced the following month at the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers’ biennial…

Energy was a sore spot—California’s shortages in 2000 had thrown a scare into everyone—and there was no time to waste. The ink had barely dried in ’01 on the specs for Energy Star’s first commercial foodservice equipment category, reach-in refrigerators and freezers, and already in early ’02 a standard for steamers was in the works.…

Identifying the most energy-efficient and effective equipment for the job is one thing. And obviously it’s a biggie. As you’ll see in this Energy Star special issue, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program now extends to eight categories of equipment, and typically an Energy Star-rated model can save you multiple hundreds of dollars a…