Your Power Bill Is Standing By
David Serchuk
Forbes.com
If someone asked you to burn 10% of your cash, it's doubtful you'd comply. But this happens every month with your energy bill. The culprit: the many electronic devices in your home that are always on, even when you think they're off.
"Standby power can be 10% to 15% of the energy load of a state," says Andrew Fanara, team leader for product specification development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "In California they went to homes where everything was shut off, and even then they consumed 100 to 105 watts of standby power at all times."
"Miscellaneous" devices, a category of products the EPA didn't even track 25 years ago, are to blame. Computers, digital video recorders, power tools and chargers for cellphones--which drain even when not charging--are all part of the problem. "Some of these adapters can draw as much as five to 20 times more energy in standby mode that is actually stored in the battery," says Fanara. "Most stay plugged in 24-7 for their entire lifetime."
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power
Ironically, a big reason for the invention of standby mode was to save energy by lessening consumption when these devices were not being used. But now this drain accounts for 10% of home energy use, up from 2% in 1980. It's the largest single category of electricity consumption in American homes, the EPA says, with major appliances, like dishwashers, second at 20%. This growth comes as big appliances have become more frugal. Refrigerators, for example, use 490 kilowatt-hours of power annually, down from 1,800 in 1972.
Digital video recorders and cable/satellite converter boxes are among the most profligate. These devices, known as "set-top boxes," draw a constant 30 or more watts of power, says Noah Horowitz, a senior scientist with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental advocacy group in San Francisco. By contrast, refrigerators draw only 40 watts.
The problem, he says, is that these boxes don't ever shut off. "To the extent there's an off button, all it does it dim the LED, which is half a watt," he says. TVs, by contrast, are quite chintzy, often drawing less than four standby watts, though in-use wattage can balloon to 240 watts for plasma sets.
Alan Meier, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), a research center in Berkeley, Calif., says set-top boxes are always on for two reasons: because they constantly talk with satellite/cable companies to download program info and because this makes it harder for pirates to steal signals.
Rising power consumption
Scientific-Atlanta, a division of Cisco Systems, has decreased set-top power consumption by 22% says David Clark, director of product strategy and management. Over the past two years, the company has made a "spin down" feature for hard-disk boxes, where if the TV has not been in use for several hours the disk rests. Scientific-Atlanta did this to prolong box life, but found a side benefit. "It helps us with wear and tear and energy consumption," says Clark. "Sometimes doing green things doesn't mean you win, but it's been very win-win."
Coinciding with this, Scientific-Atlanta's set-top sales climbed to 45% of the U.S. market from 40% five years ago, it says, taking share from Motorola, whose slice shrunk from 60% to 55%.
Motorola counters that last summer it instituted digital set-tops that consume up to 33% less energy than analog boxes. Still, Motorola boxes currently lack spin down, although a spokesman says that could change next quarter.
The next great set-top standby debate is brewing and will culminate in February 2009. That's when the government switches all TV signals from analog to digital; as a result the 13% to 15% of American homes that still use antennas will have to buy a box, called a digital television adapter (DTA), to convert the digital signal.
In April 2005, California set standards requiring DTAs to use eight watts on, one watt standby. The Consumer Electronics Association, an electronics trade group, opposes this. "We are concerned about regulating products that don't exist," says Doug Johnson, senior director of technology policy at the CEA. Instead, the CEA supports the EPA's Energy Star program, which is voluntary and market-driven. (While Energy Star can't require compliance, companies that participate meet efficiency guidelines to earn the star sticker.)
Steven Nadell, executive director of the nonprofit American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, counters that CEA member firms are resistant to changing DTA designs already in place. "They're worried to raise prices by a few dollars," he says.
John Taylor, vice president of government relations for LG Electronics USA, a firm that will make DTAs, responds that the company has created new technology for the DTAs and opposes California's standards. The issue is national in scope, he says.
Computers are also a huge standby drain. Traditional computers average 35.5 watts in standby, while laptops average 16.5 watts, according to a 2005 survey conducted by Australia's Ministerial Council on Energy. Screen savers actually make things worse, using 28% more power than normal, says the NRDC's Horowitz.
Efficient circuits
But not all the news is bad. Thanks to more efficient circuit designs--created by firms like San Jose, Calif.-based Power Integrations--cellphone chargers, for one, have grown less thirsty over the past five years. Where they once drained two to five watts indefinitely, many now use as little as half a watt. Here environmentalists found an ally in the Bush administration. In June 2001 President Bush required the government to purchase appliances, and chargers, that used the least standby power. At the time, the White House estimated the U.S. could save from $1 billion to 2 billion in energy bills if standby settings used one watt or less.
The EPA estimates that there are 1 billion chargers in the U.S. and predicts that number will grow. In January, Energy Star began a major campaign to make chargers at least 35% more efficient. By doing this, the EPA believes it can save more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equal to that spewed by 150,000 cars.
Other large standby drainers include ink jet printers, which can use from three to 20 watts, and mini-stereos, which can consume from one to 25 watts. "You think you turned off the [stereo]," says LBNL's Meier. "But when it's switched on, it only goes to 28 watts."
Commercial standby is also a considerable drain. In October 2005, Australia released surveys showing that from 4% to 8% of all commercial power was for standby. Computers consumed the most, using 49%; printers were a distant second, at 10%. Total use per employee ranged from 200 to 500 kilowatt hours.
To combat this, Hewlett-Packard educated its employees about their computer's low-power consumption modes. HP inspected 183,000 monitors, finding a third weren't optimized. Once they were reset, the company saved 7.8 million kilowatt hours of power, equal to $600,000 and 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide in 2005.
But wasn't this disruptive? William Olinger, product manager in environmental strategies at HP, concedes there were some gripes. "We had three complaints," he says.
David Serchuk
Forbes.com
If someone asked you to burn 10% of your cash, it's doubtful you'd comply. But this happens every month with your energy bill. The culprit: the many electronic devices in your home that are always on, even when you think they're off.
"Standby power can be 10% to 15% of the energy load of a state," says Andrew Fanara, team leader for product specification development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "In California they went to homes where everything was shut off, and even then they consumed 100 to 105 watts of standby power at all times."
"Miscellaneous" devices, a category of products the EPA didn't even track 25 years ago, are to blame. Computers, digital video recorders, power tools and chargers for cellphones--which drain even when not charging--are all part of the problem. "Some of these adapters can draw as much as five to 20 times more energy in standby mode that is actually stored in the battery," says Fanara. "Most stay plugged in 24-7 for their entire lifetime."
Go to Forbes.com to view the slideshow
power
Ironically, a big reason for the invention of standby mode was to save energy by lessening consumption when these devices were not being used. But now this drain accounts for 10% of home energy use, up from 2% in 1980. It's the largest single category of electricity consumption in American homes, the EPA says, with major appliances, like dishwashers, second at 20%. This growth comes as big appliances have become more frugal. Refrigerators, for example, use 490 kilowatt-hours of power annually, down from 1,800 in 1972.
Digital video recorders and cable/satellite converter boxes are among the most profligate. These devices, known as "set-top boxes," draw a constant 30 or more watts of power, says Noah Horowitz, a senior scientist with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental advocacy group in San Francisco. By contrast, refrigerators draw only 40 watts.
The problem, he says, is that these boxes don't ever shut off. "To the extent there's an off button, all it does it dim the LED, which is half a watt," he says. TVs, by contrast, are quite chintzy, often drawing less than four standby watts, though in-use wattage can balloon to 240 watts for plasma sets.
Alan Meier, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), a research center in Berkeley, Calif., says set-top boxes are always on for two reasons: because they constantly talk with satellite/cable companies to download program info and because this makes it harder for pirates to steal signals.
Rising power consumption
Scientific-Atlanta, a division of Cisco Systems, has decreased set-top power consumption by 22% says David Clark, director of product strategy and management. Over the past two years, the company has made a "spin down" feature for hard-disk boxes, where if the TV has not been in use for several hours the disk rests. Scientific-Atlanta did this to prolong box life, but found a side benefit. "It helps us with wear and tear and energy consumption," says Clark. "Sometimes doing green things doesn't mean you win, but it's been very win-win."
Coinciding with this, Scientific-Atlanta's set-top sales climbed to 45% of the U.S. market from 40% five years ago, it says, taking share from Motorola, whose slice shrunk from 60% to 55%.
Motorola counters that last summer it instituted digital set-tops that consume up to 33% less energy than analog boxes. Still, Motorola boxes currently lack spin down, although a spokesman says that could change next quarter.
The next great set-top standby debate is brewing and will culminate in February 2009. That's when the government switches all TV signals from analog to digital; as a result the 13% to 15% of American homes that still use antennas will have to buy a box, called a digital television adapter (DTA), to convert the digital signal.
In April 2005, California set standards requiring DTAs to use eight watts on, one watt standby. The Consumer Electronics Association, an electronics trade group, opposes this. "We are concerned about regulating products that don't exist," says Doug Johnson, senior director of technology policy at the CEA. Instead, the CEA supports the EPA's Energy Star program, which is voluntary and market-driven. (While Energy Star can't require compliance, companies that participate meet efficiency guidelines to earn the star sticker.)
Steven Nadell, executive director of the nonprofit American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, counters that CEA member firms are resistant to changing DTA designs already in place. "They're worried to raise prices by a few dollars," he says.
John Taylor, vice president of government relations for LG Electronics USA, a firm that will make DTAs, responds that the company has created new technology for the DTAs and opposes California's standards. The issue is national in scope, he says.
Computers are also a huge standby drain. Traditional computers average 35.5 watts in standby, while laptops average 16.5 watts, according to a 2005 survey conducted by Australia's Ministerial Council on Energy. Screen savers actually make things worse, using 28% more power than normal, says the NRDC's Horowitz.
Efficient circuits
But not all the news is bad. Thanks to more efficient circuit designs--created by firms like San Jose, Calif.-based Power Integrations--cellphone chargers, for one, have grown less thirsty over the past five years. Where they once drained two to five watts indefinitely, many now use as little as half a watt. Here environmentalists found an ally in the Bush administration. In June 2001 President Bush required the government to purchase appliances, and chargers, that used the least standby power. At the time, the White House estimated the U.S. could save from $1 billion to 2 billion in energy bills if standby settings used one watt or less.
The EPA estimates that there are 1 billion chargers in the U.S. and predicts that number will grow. In January, Energy Star began a major campaign to make chargers at least 35% more efficient. By doing this, the EPA believes it can save more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equal to that spewed by 150,000 cars.
Other large standby drainers include ink jet printers, which can use from three to 20 watts, and mini-stereos, which can consume from one to 25 watts. "You think you turned off the [stereo]," says LBNL's Meier. "But when it's switched on, it only goes to 28 watts."
Commercial standby is also a considerable drain. In October 2005, Australia released surveys showing that from 4% to 8% of all commercial power was for standby. Computers consumed the most, using 49%; printers were a distant second, at 10%. Total use per employee ranged from 200 to 500 kilowatt hours.
To combat this, Hewlett-Packard educated its employees about their computer's low-power consumption modes. HP inspected 183,000 monitors, finding a third weren't optimized. Once they were reset, the company saved 7.8 million kilowatt hours of power, equal to $600,000 and 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide in 2005.
But wasn't this disruptive? William Olinger, product manager in environmental strategies at HP, concedes there were some gripes. "We had three complaints," he says.
