Marla McWhinney

After-hours power status of office equipment and energy use of miscellaneous plug-load equipment

This research was conducted in support of two branches of the EPA ENERGY STAR program, whose overall goal is to reduce, through voluntary market-based means, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted in the U.S. The primary objective was to collect data for the ENERGY STAR Office Equipment program on the after-hours power state of computers, monitors, printers, copiers, scanners, fax machines, and multi-function devices. We also collected data for the ENERGY STAR Commercial Buildings branch on the types and amounts of miscellaneous plug-load equipment, a significant and growing end use that is not usually accounted for by building energy managers. For most types of miscellaneous equipment, we also estimated typical unit energy consumption in order to estimate total energy consumption of the miscellaneous devices within our sample. This data set is the first of its kind that we know of, and is an important first step in characterizing miscellaneous plug loads in commercial buildings. The main purpose of this study is to supplement and update previous data we collected on the extent to which electronic office equipment is turned off or automatically enters a low power state when not in active use. In addition, it provides data on numbers and types of office equipment, and helps identify trends in office equipment usage patterns. These data improve our estimates of typical unit energy consumption and savings for each equipment type, and enables the ENERGY STAR Office Equipment program to focus future effort on products with the highest energy savings potential. This study expands our previous sample of office buildings in California and Washington DC to include education and health care facilities, and buildings in other states. We report data from sixteen commercial buildings in California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania: four education buildings, two medical buildings, two large offices (> 500 employees each), three medium offices (50-500 employees each), and five small business offices (< 50 employees each). Two buildings are in the San Francisco Bay are a of California, nine (including the five small businesses) are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and five are in Atlanta, Georgia.

Field power measurements of imaging equipment

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, electricity use by non-PC commercial office equipment is growing at an annual rate of nearly 5 percent (AEO 2003). To help address this growth in consumption, U.S. EPA periodically updates its ENERGY STAR specifications as products and markets change. This report presents background research conducted to help EPA update the ENERGY STAR specification for imaging equipment, which covers printers, fax machines, copiers, scanners, and multifunction devices (MFDs). We first estimated the market impact of the current ENERGY STAR imaging specification, finding over 90 percent of the current market complies with the specification. We then analyzed a sample of typical new imaging products, including 11 faxes, 57 printers and 19 copiers/MFD. For these devices we metered power levels in the most common modes: active/ready/sleep/off, and recorded features that would most likely affect energy consumption. Our metering indicates that for many products and speed bins, current models consume substantially less power than the current specification. We also found that for all product categories, power consumption varied most considerably across technology (i.e. inkjet vs. laser). Although inkjet printers consumed less energy than laser printers in active, ready and sleep-mode, they consumed more power on average while off, mostly due to the use of external power supplies. Based on these findings, we developed strategies for the ENERGY STAR program to achieve additional energy reductions. Finally, we present an assessment of manufacturers ENERGY STAR labeling practices.

2002 status report: Savings estimates for the ENERGY STAR(R) voluntary labeling program

ENERGY STAR [registered trademark] is a voluntary labeling program designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products, buildings and practices. Operated jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), ENERGY STAR labels exist for more than thirty products, spanning office equipment, residential heating and cooling equipment, commercial and residential lighting, home electronics, and major appliances. This report presents savings estimates for a subset of ENERGY STAR program activities, focused primarily on labeled products. We present estimates of the energy, dollar and carbon savings achieved by the program in the year 2001, what we expect in 2002, and provide savings forecasts for two market penetration scenarios for the period 2002 to 2020. The target market penetration forecast represents our best estimate of future ENERGY STAR savings. It is based on realistic market penetration goals for each of the products. We also provide a forecast under the assumption of 100 percent market penetration; that is, we assume that all purchasers buy ENERGY STAR-compliant products instead of standard efficiency products throughout the analysis period.