Reports & Links
These reports and documents provide additional insights and data about standby power. The ones at the bottom are mostly of historical interest.
Meier, A., et al., Low Power Mode Energy Consumption in California Homes, 2008, California Energy Commission, Public Interest Energy Research Program, Report No. CEC-500-2008-035: Sacramento, Calif.
Nissen, N.F., EuP Preparatory Study Lot 6: Standby and Off-Mode Losses, 2007, Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, IZM, Berlin, Report No. Berlin.
Roth, K., et al., Residential Miscellaneous Electric Loads: Energy Consumption Characterization and Savings Potential, 2007, U.S. Department of Energy, Buildings Technology Program, Report No. Washington, D.C.
Meier, A. and B. Nordman. "Low Power Mode Energy Use in California Homes" in ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. 2008. Washington, D.C.: American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
Roth, K. and K. McKenney, Energy Consumption by Consumer Electronics in U.S. Residences, 2007, TIAX, Report No. Reference D5525:Cambridge, Mass.
Energy Efficient Strategies, 2005 Intrusive Residential Standby Survey Report (Prepared for the Australian/NZ Ministerial Council on Energy), 2006, Energy Efficient Strategies, Report No. 2006/02:Warragul (Australia).
Meier, A. and H.P. Siderius. "Regulating Standby" in ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. 2006. Pacific Grove: American Council for An Energy-Efficient Economy.
Ohkuni, K., Top Runner Program and Efforts to Reduce Standby Power Consumption in Japan. 2006, The Energy Conservation Center, Japan: Tokyo.
Meier, A., "Vampire Slaying and Other New Directions for Efficiency Standards" in Home Energy Magazine. 2005. p. 2.
Meier, A. Standby: "Where Are We Now" in 2005 ECEEE Summer Study. 2005. Mandelieu: European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
Harris, J., et al. "Using government purchasing power to reduce equipment standby power" in The 2003 ECEEE Summer Study. 2003. St-Raphaël: European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
Meier, A. and B. Lebot. "The 1 Watt Initiative: Cutting the World's Standby Losses" in Energy Globe 2002. 2002. Wels, Austria: O.Oe. Energiesparverband.
IEA, Things That Go Blip in the Night: Standby Power and How to Reduce It. 2001, Paris: International Energy Agency.
Reports from Before 2001
LBNL Reports
LBNL 45967: Whole-House Measurements of Standby Power Consumption
International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Appliances, September, 2000
J.P. Ross and Alan Meier
LBNL 46019: Global Implications of Standby Power Use
ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August, 2000
Benoit Lebot, Alan Meier, and Alain Anglade
LBNL 42108: Reducing Leaking Electricity to 1 Watt
The 1998 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 1998
Alan Meier, Wolfgang Huber and Karen Rosen
LBNL 40909: Results from the investigations on leaking electricity in the USA
The 1997 EU Conference on Home Appliances, November 1997
Alan Meier and Wolfgang Huber
LBNL Presentations
International Home Tours of Standby Power
Created especially for this website
Standby Power Use — Definitions and Terminology
Presented at the First Workshop on Reducing Standby Losses: Paris, France, January 1999
Alan Meier
Reducing Electricity to a Trickle
Presented at the ACEEE Summer Study: Pacific Grove, California, August 1998
Alan Meier
Results from the investigations on leaking electricity in the USA
Presented at the 1997 EU Conference on Home Appliances: Florence, Italy, November 1997
Alan Meier and Wolfgang Huber
Other Sources
Stand By Me (Efficiently)
Appliance Manufacturer Magazine, July 2000
Richard J. Babyak
Stand-By Power
Appliance Magazine, 15 June 2000
(Anonymous)
Squeeze Watts from your Imbedded Design
EDN Magazine, 4 February 1999
Warren Webb, Technical Editor
Drop by Drop, "Green" Design Saves Buckets of AC Power
EDN Magazine, 4 February 1999
Bill Schweber, Technical Editor
Reducing Leaking Electricity
Center for Building Science News, Winter 1998
Alan Meier and Karen Olson
Appliances that Leak Electricity and How to Plug Them
Berkeley Lab Research Review, Fall 1997
Allan Chen
Must We Pull the Plug?: New Programs Aim to Cut the Juice Drawn by Leaky Appliances
Science News Online, October 1997
Janet Raloff
Leaky Electricity
Scientific American, August 1997
Kristin Leutwyler
You Won't Find These Leaks with a Blower Door: the Latest in "Leaking Electricity" in Homes
The 1996 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 1996
Leo Rainer, Steve Greenberg, and Alan Meier
Standing Up to the Standby
Appliance Efficiency, January 1998
Hans-Paul Siderius (Netherlands)
Waste While Standing By (Germany)
German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) Press Release, September 1997
Leaking Electricity Poster, Winter 1998 (in Japanese and English)
Energy Conservation Center, Japan (ECCJ)
Electronic Home Equipment—Leaking Electricity
In The Energy Efficiency Challenge for Europe. 1993. Paris: European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
Sandberg, E.
Links
Other Organizations Involved with Standby Power
U.S.
Europe and Asia
- Group for Energy Efficient Appliances (GEEA), Europe
- International Energy Agency (IEA)
- Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan
- Law Concerning the Rational Use of Energy
[translated by the Energy Conservation Center, Japan (ECCJ)]
- Law Concerning the Rational Use of Energy
- SenterNovem (Nederlandse onderneming voor energie en milieu), The Netherlands
Australia
- Department of Climate Change, Australian Government
Design Help
Power Supplies
- Bias Power, LLC offers standby power supplies with UL, CE and VDE certification, providing 1/4 and 1/2 watt standby power at 50%+ efficiency
- ON Semiconductor's PWM Current-Mode Controller allows designers to build extremely efficient low-cost AC/DC wall adapters
- SMPS Technology offers switching power supply "design problems, solutions, tutorials, tips, and resources"
- TinySwitch technology (Power Integrations) enables a new class of compact, energy efficient power supplies
- GreenChips (NXP Semiconductors), used in power supplies of TVs and VCRs, reduce standby power by up to 99%
Battery Chargers
- The ACTivator (Advanced Charger Technology, Inc.) uses patented Dynamic Electrochemical Waveform—technology to analyze the battery and determine its condition. The ACTivator's intelligent software continuously adjusts the charging current to perform the optimum charge for the battery.
- The Optimizer 2000 Series (Alexander Technologies) offers many features to determine a battery's full charging point. The unit charges Ni-Cd and Ni-MH (3-12 cell), Lead Acid (3-9 cell) and Lithium-Ion (1-5 cell) battery packs.
Chips and Other Circuitry
- The BF1107 (NXP Semiconductors) is a low-cost RF switch for VCRs that passes the antenna signal to the TV set without any supply voltage, so that the VCR need be switched on only when in use.
- Smart Transistors (ORNL) retain information without power.
- SMP430 Ultra-low-power Microcontrollers (Texas Instruments) consume only about 4 microwatts (1.3 microAmps) in standby mode.
- MoBL™ SRAMs (Cypress Perform) use up to 90% less power than standard low-power SRAMs
- Copper-Based Chips (IBM) are smaller and require less power than aluminum-based chips
Display Technologies
- OLED breakthrough (Princeton University) promises brighter, more efficient OLED displays
- 30-inch LCD TV (Sharp) available in the U.S. in 2000
- 42-inch LCD displays (Samsung) are currently in the design stage
- Active-Matrix OLEDs (Kodak, Sanyo) promise to be thinner and consume about half the power of a backlit LCD.
- Digital Paper (E Ink, Lucent Technologies) is expected to be thinner and cost less than LCDs.
Chip Design
- The Behavioral Compiler from Synopsis now has power optimization that promises power savings of 20-25%
Power Management
- Instantly Available PCs (Intel) use only 5 watts in sleep mode and are instantly available (no boot time) on user or network signals
- Magic Packet technology (Advanced Micro Devices) allows a computer in deep sleep mode to wake up when it receives a network signal