Energy Label

The European Union has established ecodesign requirements for all manufacturers and suppliers wishing to sell products that consume electricity in standby and power-off mode in the EU. Equipment such as computers, TVs, audio and video equipment, dishwashers, microwave ovens and electric toys, can have standby modes. Since 2009, these devices have been forced to switch to low power mode after a reasonable period of time.

As of 2013, it was established that these should not consume more than 0.5 Wh in standby mode. The application These rules have reduced annual electricity consumption by about 35.5 TWh per year – equivalent to Romania’s annual energy consumption. This has saved consumers 25 billion euros a year and 39 million tons of CO2 emissions .

However, current equipment (televisions, routers, modems, network printers and game consoles) is increasingly connected to the internet during standby, consuming greater amounts of energy. therefore, in 2013 specific requirements were defined for the standby consumption of devices connected to the network. These requirements were revised in January 2017, and since then networked devices should not consume more than 3 to 12 Wh in standby (depending on the product), replacing the previously defined requirements of 20 to 80 Wh.