Questions and Answers on Standby Power

• What is the Government of Canada announcing about standby power?
• What products will be regulated?
• What is the federal government doing about standby power energy waste?
• What is standby power energy waste?
• How much energy do products use in Standby mode?
• How much does standby power use in a typical Canadian home?
• How did you arrive at this calculation?
• How much energy could be saved by reducing standby power consumption?
• How do I measure standby power?
• What can I do to stop or reduce standby power consumption?
• Will I still be able to use my remote to control my consumer electronics after the standby standard is implemented?
• Will electronic products cost more because of the new regulation?
• If this problem is widely recognised, why are manufacturers not doing anything about it?
• How can standby power consumption be reduced?

Q: What is the Government of Canada announcing about standby power?

A: The Government of Canada has announced its intention to set minimum performance standards for standby power use for some consumer products.

Canada’s regulations for standby power will be implemented in two stages. The first standards requiring standby limits for consumer electronics will come into effect in 2008. More stringent standards will follow in 2010. The new standby limits are equivalent to those in the State of California’s energy legislation.

Q: What products will be regulated?

A: Consumer products such as compact audio products, televisions, DVD players/recorders and digital television adaptors will be addressed. New regulations currently being developed for furnaces and dishwashers will likely also include limits for standby power.

Q: What is the federal government doing about standby power energy waste?

A: The Government of Canada launched the Standby Power Advisory Committee in June 2007. The committee is responsible for developing and implementing awareness campaigns and providing advice to the government on activities related to standby power.

The Committee is co-chaired by Natural Resources Canada, and the ElectroFederation of Canada. Its members represent a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including utility companies, industry, provincial governments and environmental non-government organizations. This committee gives stakeholders the opportunity to be involved in Canada’s efforts to reduce standby power consumption.

The Government of Canada is also launching a major study of the standby power consumption of consumer electronic products. A better understanding of the standby power consumption of existing products will help determine the best way to implement the coming regulations. The study is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.

Experts are also working, through the Canadian Standards Association, to incorporate international methods for testing consumer products for standby power consumption to ensure that the products meet Canadian standards.

Q: What is standby power energy waste?

A: The term can be used to define the energy that a product is drawing while it is waiting to be used.

A growing number of household electrical devices draw power 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even when turned off, these appliances and home electronics continue to use electricity — referred to as standby power — to operate features such as

• clocks
• timers and touch pads
• remote controls, and
• charging batteries.

Battery chargers or external power supplies also draw power when they are plugged in — even if the device they power is fully charged or disconnected and not performing a function.

Consumers often believe that their appliance is off, when in fact it is “standing by” and still consuming power. In fact, the only way to guarantee that an electronic device is not drawing power is to unplug it from the outlet.

Q: How much energy do products use in Standby mode?

A: Although the standby power consumption of most devices is relatively small, generally ranging from 0.5 to over 20 watts of electricity, the number of devices in our homes and businesses drawing standby power is large and growing — a trend that is turning standby power into a big problem in Canada, as in other parts of the world. To make matters worse, though many of the features enabled by standby power are useful, electricity consumption in standby mode is often far greater than necessary. For some products, much of this power is wasted by inefficient product design.

Here is an example of just how much power a computer uses

Electricity consumption over a 12 hour period (in watt-hour),
Computer and monitor*

Left “On”…………………………………………………..…….1,680
(Computer without power management features enabled)

In standby mode……………………………………………......... 360
(ENERGY STAR® qualified computer and monitor
with power management features enabled)

Turned “Off” ………………………………………………………24

* For a personal desktop computer and 17” CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor.

Q: How much does standby power use in a typical Canadian home?

A: A typical Canadian household can have upwards of 20 pieces of equipment all using standby power at the same time. Although each device is using a relatively small amount of electricity, their combined consumption can be equivalent to operating a second refrigerator — and an empty one, at that!  In fact, standby power accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all electricity used in the typical Canadian home.

Across Canada, appliances in standby mode are estimated to be using at least 5.4 terawatt-hours — that’s 5,400,000,000 kWh. Excessive standby power consumption not only wastes money, it also has an environmental impact.

Q: How did you arrive at this calculation?

A: Standby power energy use per household was estimated by merging the results of a study, which measured the standby power energy use of common household appliances, with data from the Statistics Canada/Natural Resources Canada 2003 Survey of Household Energy Use.

This survey determined the extent of ownership of equipment in Canadian homes (also called penetration rate) and the usage of household appliances.

We then estimated the standby power energy use per household in a scenario where Canada would implement a 1 watt minimum energy performance standard.

The difference between these two estimations was updated to reflect ownership figures for 2007, based on today’s number of households, in order to calculate the standby power energy use for the entire Canadian residential sector.

Q: How much energy could be saved by reducing standby power consumption?

A: In many cases, the energy used in standby is wasted because of inefficient power supply designs and because components are unnecessarily powered. Through more efficient designs in new products, and improved power supply technologies, as well as behaviour-related actions such as switching off or unplugging units, reducing the standby power consumption of all devices to 1 watt or less would save 3.9 terawatt-hours. This is equivalent to the electrical consumption of all households in Manitoba and Prince Edward Island combined.

Q: How do I measure standby power?

A: To measure standby power accurately, you will need a power meter. These are typically sold in hardware or home stores where timers and electrical products are sold.

Power meters are hand held watt readers, which display the amount of electricity used by the product at any given time. They are designed to work with products that plug into standard wall sockets at 120 volts, and not for large appliances such as stoves or dryers, which require higher voltage input.

Q: What can I do to stop or reduce standby power consumption?

A: Some of the features enabled by standby power can be useful. Where feasible, unplug equipment or use a power bar to cut the circuit — this is the only way to be certain that an electronic device is not drawing power.

When buying a new product, purchase ENERGY STAR qualified products. Some types of equipment — home entertainment and computer products, for example — qualify for this international symbol of energy efficiency by dramatically reducing standby power consumption.

• When you turn off your television, make sure you also turn off the set-top box, DVD player, VCR or video game console.
  
  
• Plug several pieces of equipment into a power bar that can easily be turned on and off as needed.
  
  
• Unplug battery chargers as soon as the device is fully charged or when the charger is not being used. As long as they are plugged in, battery chargers draw power even when they are not performing a function.
  
  
• When shopping for new home entertainment equipment, look for the ENERGY STAR symbol. ENERGY STAR-qualified products use up to 50 percent less energy in standby mode than non-qualified equipment.
  
  
• The same goes for office equipment such as computers, monitors, printers and scanners. An ENERGY STAR-qualified computer with its power management feature activated uses 70 percent less electricity than a typical model without this designation.
  
  
• Turn off your computer when it is not being used — it only takes a minute to reboot, and turning it off not only greatly reduces standby power consumption, it will extend the life of your computer.
  
  
• Avoid using so called “screen savers” — they will cause your monitor to consume the same amount of power as when it is running normally. The best way to protect the screen (and to save electricity) is to activate your monitor’s sleep settings.
  
  
• Check the owner’s manuals to make sure you are taking full advantage of any energy-saving features that may be built into your computer/monitor and other electronics.

Q: Will I still be able to use my remote to control my consumer electronics after the standby standard is implemented?

A: Yes, the intent is to reduce the amount of power used in standby while still providing the function required by the consumer.

Q: Will electronic products cost more because of the new regulation?

A: The technology to meet the regulation is already on the market. We also expect that the reduction of standby power will be part of the normal redesign cycles of the product. Finally, our surveys of ENERGY STAR-qualified consumer electronics have shown that the most energy efficient products on the market are not necessarily more expensive. The increases in cost are generally associated with more product features.

Q: If this problem is widely recognised, why are manufacturers not doing anything about it?

A: In fact, manufacturers have been active participants in some voluntary programs, such as ENERGY STAR, and have reduced the amount of standby power consumed by some equipment.  But, as the popularity of home electronics increases and the number of new appliances with electronic controls and features increases, this problem continues to grow.

Q: How can standby power consumption be reduced?

A: The savings can be achieved through improvements in (1) hardware, such as power supplies, integrated circuit chips and input/output components, and (2) software, with the implementation of more efficient power management.

Example: For a television, the standby power is necessary because certain components must have power to respond while appliances are in standby mode. For example, most TVs can be switched on using a remote control. This is possible because the TV has an infrared receiver that is continuously looking for the signal from the remote control. Although the infrared receiver uses only a few milliwatts, other components, such as a decoder chip and the power supply, must also be active for the infrared receiver to work properly. In addition, many appliances are not designed to be efficient, meaning that some components might be left active even though they are not needed. The sum of the energy consumption of all of these components is what we call standby power.