Energy Efficiency: Home Electronics

Home electronic products that have earned the ENERGY STAR designation use less energy to support the typical standby power modes inherent to home electronics (e.g. clock displays and remote controls). These more efficient designs equate to approximately $100 of savings in annual energy bills for a typical U.S. household.

Summary of ENERGY STAR Home Electronics

The following table summarizes the average benefits that are realized by an average U.S. household in replacing “conventional” home electronic equipments with those qualified through the ENERGY STAR program. Overall, these products typically represent about 15 percent of an average home’s energy consumption and bill.

Appliance	Energy Efficiency Performance
Audio/Video (AV) Products	In addition to having all the latest features, ENERGY STAR qualified AV products (e.g. CD, DVD, and Blu-ray) will use up to 60 percent less energy. This is due to the On mode and low-power Sleep mode consumption limits and Auto Power Down requirements addressed in the Version 2.0 specification issued in November 2009.
Battery Charging Systems	Used to recharge cordless products (e.g. power tools, small household appliances and personal car products), this category represents over 230 million products in U.S. homes and businesses. There is the potential to save more than 1 billion kWh of energy per year (35 percent reduction) while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than one million tons.
TV/VCR and TV/DVD Combination Units	In addition to coming with the latest features (progressive-scan DVD players and HD-ready TVs), ENERGY STAR qualified combination units will be 35 percent more efficient than “conventional” models.
Cordless Phones	Because of switch-mode power supplies and “smart” chargers, ENERGY STAR qualified cordless phones, answering machines and combination units will be 33 percent more efficient than “conventional” models.
Digital – to – Analog (DTA) Converter Boxes	Current estimates are that 22 million DTA converter boxes will be purchased and consume over 3 billion kWh per year at a additional cost of $270 million in utility bills. ENERGY STAR qualified DTA converter boxes will consume no more than 8 watts in ON mode, 1 watt in SLEEP mode and automatically power down after 4 hours of inactivity, resulting in overall total reductions in energy of 13 billion kWh and $1 billion in energy costs.
External Power Adapters	Otherwise known as power supplies, these adapters account for 300 billion kWh or energy use per year and 11 percent of total electric costs in the U.S. Used with MP3 players, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), camcorders, digital camera, laptops, and cordless and mobile phones, ENERGY STAR qualified models are 30 percent more efficient and lighter/smaller in size (more convenient).
Set-top Boxes	ENERGY STAR qualified Set-top boxes, designed to receive television signals from a specific source and deliver them to a consumer display or recording device, will be at least 30 percent more efficient than “conventional” models and ultimately reduce energy costs by $2 billion per year.
Televisions	There are currently 275 million television sets in use in the U.S. consuming over 50 billion kWh of energy annually (4 percent of all residential electricity use). When applied to virtually every type of TV (Standard, HE-ready, and Flat Screen Plasma TVs), ENERGY STAR qualified TVs are 30 percent more efficient than “conventional” models.

NOTE: Only those products listed by an Energy Star partner are officially recognized as ENERGY STAR qualified. A listing of these partners can be found at the Energy Star web site.