Standby and Off Mode Energy Losses in New Appliances

The introduction of energy labels, together with MEPS, implemented with EU Directives over the past years, has produced a very positive trend in the sales of more energy efficient appliances. Consumers have responded positively to this mandatory information scheme at the point of sales enabling the comparison of the energy-efficiency of various models of the same appliance family through their ranking. Despite these improvements electricity demand has increased and it a considerable increase in is expected due to the increasing number of electronic components in appliances that offer more and more functionalities and to the increase of the size of some key appliances as fridges or TVs. This paper presents the preliminary results of the SELINA (Standby and Off-Mode Energy Losses In New Appliances Measured in Shops) project, focusing on office equipment. The main objective of the SELINA project is to identify effective market transformation policies targeted at all the key stakeholders involved in the manufacture, distribution, sales and operation of appliances with standby and off-mode losses in order to achieve electricity and carbon emissions savings. The paper presents the analysis of the data acquired up to now during the large scale monitoring campaigns regarding standby and off-mode consumption as well as the methodology developed for measurement of these data. Energy consumption of the measured appliances in low power modes will be compared to the standby and off-mode European legislation and compared to data available, international literature and databases. Another key issue of the project is to find out the commerce/retailer awareness of energy efficiency in general and of low power mode consumption modes. Are retailers active enough in promoting energy efficient products towards their customers? Are they aware of the impact of low power modes? A short questionnaire was designed in order to evaluate the awareness of retailers, e.g. their knowledge and interest on labeling, standby consumption, energy star, efficiency classes, etc. Information is being gathered on the presence of the labeling on the equipments (inside and outside EU countries) and also of policies and actions to accelerate the market penetration of energy-efficient electrical appliances. Preliminary results of this awareness survey being conducted in stores are presented on this paper. Possible generic measures to reinforce the EU legislation are discussed on the basis of these preliminary results.