If We’re Only Snoozing, We’re Losing: Opportunities to Save Energy by Improving the Active Mode Efficiency of Consumer Electronics and Office Equipment

Suzanne Foster and Chris Calwell, Ecos Consulting
Noah Horowitz, Natural Resources Defense Council

Keywords

Abstract

With appliances, HVAC, and lighting, the vast majority of energy savings has always come from higher efficiency in the functional or “active” mode. Yet with consumer electronics and office equipment (“electronics”), the primary focus of federal efficiency efforts and utility programs to date has been on standby and sleep mode energy use. In effect, these programs currently call a product “efficient” if it draws a small amount of power when not in active use, regardless of how much energy it consumes to perform its intended function.

Now that state and federal standards have “locked in” substantial efficiency improvements in the building shell, HVAC, and appliances, plug loads like electronics represent an ever-growing share of total residential and commercial energy use. Most of these devices now consume more energy in active mode than in their various low power modes. Most contain ac-dc power supplies, which by themselves can waste 10 to 70% of the total energy consumed by the finished product, even though more efficient designs are available in the market. In total, the nation’s 3.1 billion power supplies waste about 3 to 4% of the entire U.S. electricity bill in the process of converting high voltage ac to low voltage dc.

This paper will highlight opportunities to improve the active mode efficiency and reduce the overall energy use of computers, monitors, televisions, battery chargers, and other major plug loads. Key strategies include:

Developing standardized test methods
Gathering consumer usage data
Creating active mode efficiency metrics and duty cycle-based benchmarks
Establishing power supply labeling and standards programs
Labeling electronics with standardized, quantitative information about performance and energy use