EU adopts measure to reduce standby power consumption

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

BRUSSELS, Dec. 17 (Chinese media) -- The European Commission Wednesday adopted a measure aimed at reducing the standby power consumption of all household and office appliances by almost 75 percent by 2020.

The measure, which lays down energy efficiency requirements for new products, will enter into force in spring 2009.

The standby power consumption of new products has to be less than 1 watt or 2 watts as of 2010. These values will be lowered in2013 to 0.5 watt and 1 watt, which is close to the levels achievable with the best available technology.

The standby feature is common to almost all household or office products, such as televisions or computers. It facilitates switching products on and off by a remote control.

Standby mode consumes approximately 50 TWh electricity per year in the European Union. The power savings resulting from this measure are comparable to Denmark's yearly electricity consumption.