Efficiency improvements in US Office equipment: Expected policy impacts and uncertainties

Abstract

DISCLAIMERThis report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, mdke any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any infomaion, apparatus, product, or pnwmss disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily cor&tute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. DXSCLAXMERPortions of this document may be illegible in electronic image products. h a g s are pduced from the best available original dolrument. EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis report describes a detailed end-use forecast of office equipment energy use for the US commercial sector. We explore the likely impacts of the US Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR office equipment program and the potential impacts of advanced technologies. The ENERGY STAR program encourages manufacturers to voluntarily incorporate power saving features into personal computers, monitors, printers, copiers, and fax machines in exchange for allowing manufacturers to use the EPA ENERGY STAR logo in their advertising campaigns. The Advanced technology case assumes that the most energy efficient current technologies are implemented regardless of cost.The main findings from our analysis are as follows:Wice equipment currently uses about 7% of all commercial sector electricity, with that fraction projected to grow to 7.6% by 2010. Total Electricity used by office equipment is projected to grow from 58 TWh in 1990 to 78 TWh in 2010 in the absence of ENERGY STAR or any other government policies.While total energy use for office equipment has grown rapidly in recent years, this growth is likely to slow in the next decade (even in the Business-as-usual case) because the US commercial sector market is becoming saturated (especially for PC CPUs and monitors) and because mainframe and minicomputer energy use per unit is declining quickly.The likely energy and dollar savings in the commercial sector from the ENERGY STAR program are significant on a national scale. Total electricity savings will range from 10 to 23 TWh/year in 2010, and will most likely be about 17 TWh/year by 2010. The most likely level of savings represents the annual output of three lo00 M W power plants, and results in net benefits to society exceeding $1 billion per year after the year 2000.The cost of achieving ENERGY STAR efficiency levels is estimated by the manufacturers to be negligible, while the cumulative direct cost of funding the ENERGY STAR Program is on the order of a few million dollars. This policy therefor...

Results from the investigations on leaking electricity in the USA

“…(There are almost equally large uncertainties in the power consumption and operating schedules for computer equipment.) We took data of power consumption from previous work (Koomey et al 1995). For operating schedule we assumed that computers used as home office (20% of computer in the residential sector) are used in the same way than computers in offices.…”

Electricity used by office equipment and network equipment in the U.S.: Detailed report and appendices

“…Fir st, we estim ated the tot al stock for each type of equi pment based on shi pment data (Informat ion Technology Industry Counci l 1998, Appl iance Magazi ne 1999). Li fetimes were der ived f rom a previous study (Koomey et al 1995). The use of a single lif etime for each type of equipment is a simpli ficati on, but the available data do not justify a more compl ex for mulati on.…”

“…We compar ed our current est imate for commerci al off ice equipment with our 1995 for ecast for the year 1999 (Koomey et al 1995). Results are shown in Figur e 5 for the office equipment types that are common to both studi es.…”

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