Appliance Standby Power Consumption: Store Survey

Full project title:

Standby power analysis of new domestic appliances

Brief description:

The aim of the project was to measure and collect standby power data from a range of common household appliances on display in retail stores in two Central Eastern European countries – Hungary and the Czech Republic.

 
The project was initiated by Energy Efficient Strategies Pty Ltd (EES) (Warragul, Victoria, Australia) as part of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate Change (APP).
 
The results of the project contributed to the pooling of standby data to assist in international comparisons and to track trends in standby power over time at national levels.

Key outputs:

Database of standby power of new appliance stock in Hungary and the Czech Republic and reports.

Overview of results:

In total 1061 appliances were metered, resulting in 2000 measurements. These measurements were recorded for the relevant alternative modes: off, standby and in use. Furthermore, additional data and information were recorded about the appliances, such as characteristics defining the particular product: size, existence of different power switches, remote control, electronic display, the type of control and transformer (EPS), where relevant the type of subwoofer, screen resolution, number of tuners, and information on energy labels.

In the Hungarian survey, 500 appliances were measured. The appliances metered in the survey were microwaves, espresso machines, laptops, monitors, computer speakers, Multi Function Devices, printers, stereos, televisions, DVD players and recorders, Hard Disk Recorders, cordless phone base stations, mobile phone chargers, and External Power Supplies.

The highest off mode power in the complete Hungarian sample was 7.5W (an MFD). On the other hand, about one third of the products, off mode power was 0W, and over half had maximum 1W. The power in passive standby mode was found to be not more than 1W in half of the cases. Active standby mode was 0W for only two units, and only 5 had maximum 1W power. One sixth of the products had a power above 10W. The average of all active standby power values was above 2.0W.

In the Czech survey, a total of 561 appliances were measured: laptops, monitors, speakers, dishwashers, stereos, DVD players and recorders, espresso machines, fans, Hard Disk Recorder, Home Theatre System, microwaves, Multi Function Device, printers, Set Top Box, toasters, televisions, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, cordless phone base stations. In most cases, the average off mode power level at the appliances types was less than 1W. The average power in standby mode was 2.6W. In 28 cases the metered power in this mode was 0W or 0.1W. On the other hand, in 17 cases the appliances drew more than 10W. In active standby mode the average power level of all the appliances in active standby mode was 6.9W. Only in six cases was the power level lower than 1W. In contrast, in more than 20% of the cases, the active standby mode power values reached more than 10W (and up to 30W).