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About this tool
Read a BEE star label properly: turn the kWh per year or ISEER figure into running cost, savings and payback between two models.
A BEE star label carries two numbers that matter and one that mostly does not. The stars are a band the model fell into when it was certified, and those bands are tightened every few years; the annual consumption in kWh, or the ISEER on an air conditioner label, is the measurement that decides your bill. This decoder converts either figure into running cost, then compares two models on savings, payback on the price premium and CO2 avoided.
Open Energy Label Decoder on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Paste your code or data sample into the workspace.
Pick the format, conversion, or analysis you need.
Copy the polished result straight back into your project.
Handles both label formats, including the tons-to-watts conversion for air conditioners.
Compares the measured figures instead of thresholds that get revised every few years.
Weighs the annual saving against the price premium over the years you will keep it.
ISEER is the Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio: the cooling delivered across a simulated Indian cooling season divided by the electricity consumed to deliver it. Higher is better, typical values run from about 3 to 6, and because it is a ratio you can invert it — annual units equal capacity in watts times cooling hours divided by ISEER divided by 1,000.
Not necessarily, if the labels are from different years. BEE revises the star thresholds on a published schedule, so a 5-star rating awarded under an older table can correspond to roughly 3 stars under the current one. Compare the kWh per year or the ISEER printed on each label, which mean the same thing whatever year they were issued.
1,600 hours. That is the annual operating assumption built into the ISEER test procedure for room air conditioners in India. If you cool a bedroom for far fewer hours, or run an office unit for far more, change that figure before judging the payback on a higher-rated model.
Multiply the annual energy consumption printed on the label by your electricity tariff. A refrigerator labelled 250 kWh a year at 8 per unit costs about 2,000 a year to run. Use your marginal slab rate rather than the average on your bill, because appliance consumption sits on top of everything else you use.