Abstract

Many electrical devices in homes continue to draw power when switched off or not actively performing their primary function. These devices include familiar appliances, such as televisions, microwave ovens, computers, set-top boxes, mobile phone chargers, and video and audio components but also less obvious devices like dishwashers, tankless gas water heaters and smoke detectors. The energy use of these devices while in their low-power modes is now about 980 kWh/year (or 112 W) per home in California, corresponding to about 13% of total residential electricity use in 2006. If treated as a separate end use, low-power mode energy use is the fourth largest residential sector end use. About half of the electricity in the electronics end use is consumed in the low-power modes.

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Panels of

Market Transformation: Taking Efficiency Mainstream

Utility Regulation, Strategies, and Policies

Residential Buildings: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

Visions of the Future: Big New Ideas for Energy Efficiency

Energy and Environmental Policy: Planning for Greater Impacts

Sustainable Communities: Systems Integration at the Community Scale

Residential Buildings: Technologies, Design, Performance Analysis, and Building Industry Trends

Commercial Buildings: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

Human and Social Dimensions of Energy Use: Trends and their Implications

Strategies for Appliances, Lighting, Electronics, and Miscellaneous End–Uses

Commercial Buildings: Technologies, Design, Performance Analysis, and Building Industry Trends