Declarations make a difference
Declarations show the electricity consumption in on, sleep and standby modes for computers and monitors, and state whether the products are energy efficient or not. The specifications for ‘energy efficiency’ are laid down by the Trust.
The maximum power used by the most energy efficient computers must not exceed:
Desktop computers with built-in monitor should not use more than the sum of the electricity required to run a computer and separate monitor in the on mode, equivalent to 103 watts for screen resolutions up to 1 megapixel and 80 watts plus 28 watts times the resolution in megapixels for higher resolutions.
The three computer power modes mean:
- On: 80 watt
- Sleep: 5 watt
- Standby: 2 watt
Desktop computers with built-in monitor should not use more than the sum of the electricity required to run a computer and separate monitor in the on mode, equivalent to 103 watts for screen resolutions up to 1 megapixel and 80 watts plus 28 watts times the resolution in megapixels for higher resolutions.
The three computer power modes mean:
- On: Power used in an idle state, immediately after the computer is switched on, with no programs other than Windows (or equivalent) operating system running. Typically, power consumption increases by about five per cent when working with programs such as word processing and e-mail. Resource hungry programs such as games and photo editing can result in power consumption increases of 50 to 100 per cent
- Sleep: Power used in power saving mode that the computer switches to after a maximum of 30 minutes of inactivity (e.g. no mouse or keyboard activity). Typically, open programs and documents are saved in the computer’s RAM (working memory). The contents can also be saved to hard disk depending on which settings have been selected under power options
- Standby: Power used when the user has shut down the operating system (Windows or equivalent) and the computer is still plugged in
- The Trust introduced the declaration in 2004 together with a number of producers (Apple, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP and Lenovo (formerly IBM PC)), SKI (National Procurement Ltd – Denmark) and IT trade organisations. The declaration is one element of the voluntary agreement system, where producers, dealers and others agree to make a special effort to market energy efficient computers and monitors
- Acer, Samsung and Philips became partners in the scheme later.
Page last updated 06.10.2008