CEE is putting the finishing touches on an initiative to promote energy-efficient consumer electronics products.
“There is great interest from members,” said CEE Program Associate Erica Schroeder, who is coordinating this project. “We are planning to present an initiative description to the CEE Board in June.”
The proposed initiative would cover the following activities:
- Working with ENERGY STAR® (commenting on specifications, industry outreach, consumer education, etc.)
- Working with members to provide consumer education
- Development of program guidelines (potentially including upstream incentives)
- Industry outreach (in addition ` to the Consumer Electronics Association, CEE will begin to cultivate relationships with individual manufacturers)
- Other initiative support (research, program summaries, U.S. and international monitoring, etc.)
Pending Board approval, the initiative would initially focus on three product areas: televisions, computers and set-top boxes. Recent developments in each of these areas are provided below.
The proposed initiative would also focus on the energy-saving potential of power supplies, both internal and external, as well as networking of home electronics, power management, standby power and product recycling.
At this point, the proposed initiative does not involve specification development; rather, the committee is monitor-ing the development of specifications and test procedures by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and ENERGY STAR.
Televisions
IEC has finalized a draft test procedure for television energy use. CEA, manufacturers, ENERGY STAR, and other stakeholders from around the world were involved in the development of this procedure.
ENERGY STAR, which is in the process of revising its specification for televisions, is currently seeking television testing data from industry using the IEC test procedure, with the goal of using this data to set appropriate performance levels.
CEE is participating in the ENERGY STAR specification revision process through comments on specification drafts and related documents.
According to federal law, the Federal Trade Commission must use a Department of Energy test procedure in order to create an EnergyGuide label. CEE is urging DOE to look at the IEC test procedure as a possible basis for the federal test procedure, so that the FTC can move forward with the development of an EnergyGuide label for televisions.
Computers
CEE’s Consumer Electronics Committee provided comments for an updated ENERGY STAR computer specification, which is expected to become effective in July 2007.
Set-top boxes
When the television industry transitions from analog to digital broadcasting on February 18, 2009, it is anticipated that there will be demand for digital-to-analog (DTA) set-top boxes.
CEE and its members supported a joint proposal to incorporate an energy-efficiency requirement into the federal subsidy coupon program for energy-efficient DTAs, which the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will administer. It was recently announced that NTIA will provide a $40 subsidy coupon for DTAs meeting the proposed levels.
CEE also participated in the ENERGY STAR DTA specification development process, which went into effect on January 31. ENERGY STAR DTAs will be more energy efficient than those meeting the NTIA subsidy requirements.
In addition, CEE is participating in the development of an ENERGY STAR spec- ification for all set-top boxes, beyond just DTAs. ENERGY STAR will initiate this process with a stakeholder meeting in May, which CEE plans to attend.
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