Which Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) air conditioner (AC) star table applies to the unit I bought, and when did inverter units start to count?

Fixed-speed air conditioners were labelled voluntarily from 2006 and mandatorily from 12 January 2009. Inverter units were labelled from June 2015 and mandatorily from January 2018. The latest table in the releases is valid 1 July 2022 to 31 December 2024, after several delays.

Timeline from the Press Information Bureau releases

• 2006: voluntary labelling for fixed-speed room air conditioners.
• 12 January 2009: that programme became mandatory.
• 2009 to 2018: BEE revised the thresholds on a biennial basis, as the release puts it. The tables start in January 2009, January 2012, January 2014 and January 2018, which are 3, 2 and 4 years apart, not evenly two.
• June 2015: voluntary labelling for inverter units, with the Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (ISEER) method. Mandatory from January 2018.
• 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019: the first validity period. Extended by a year to 31 December 2020, then to 31 December 2021 and by 6 months to 30 June 2022. The May 2023 release gives the Covid-19 period as the reason for the 2020 extensions.
• 1 July 2022 to 31 December 2024: the table in the 2023 release. Split 1 star 3.3, 5 star 5.0. Window 1 star 2.7, 5 star 3.5.

A date the later release changed

The January 2020 release says the new ISEER ranges, 3.30 to 5.00 for split and 2.70 to 3.50 for window, apply from 1 January 2021. That was a forward date. The May 2023 release says BEE extended the validity of the norms during 2020 (it names the Covid-19 period), and that the revised tables were made applicable from 1 July 2022. Both are government releases. The later one lists the extensions, so use 1 July 2022 for when the table took effect.

Using this on an old unit

Match the purchase or manufacture date to the row, then read the label for the actual ISEER or Energy Efficiency Ratio. Date alone does not give consumption, and the releases do not say what applies from 1 January 2025.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so the kilowatt hours on your bills before and after a change sit in one place.

• Old 5 star split AC against a new 1 star
• Split AC star bands, July 2022 to 2024
• BEE star label: mandatory or voluntary
• Which air conditioners the label covers

Sources: Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Power: star labelling results for split and window air conditioners (10 May 2023), Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Power: new energy performance standards for room air conditioners (6 January 2020)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Dates and extensions are from the Press Information Bureau releases of 6 January 2020 and 10 May 2023. The earlier one gave a forward date of 1 January 2021 that the 2020 extensions later moved, and this page follows the later release, which lists the extensions. Ask the seller for the table that applies to your model.