Energy Efficiency Research

Ever thought about how many portable electronic devices you have around your home? Let’s count: cell phone, laptop, tablet, electric toothbrush, electric razor, power tool…  Most of us have at least one or two, and some of us have more.  They may do different things to make our lives easier or better, but they all have one thing in common: a battery.

Now that the U.S. department of Energy has followed the California Energy Commission in adopting an energy performance standard for consumer battery chargers, all products with battery chargers sold after June 2018 will be required to use less energy to charge than they did before.

Kannah’s Principal, Suzanne Foster Porter, lead the California investor-owned utility consultant team that developed the test procedure and standard adopted by California back in 2012. DOE’s adoption this month will ensure all U.S. citizens will benefit from more efficient battery chargers, putting money back in their pockets through savings on their energy bills.

The appliance standards awareness project (ASAP) estimated the total energy savings, including the savings from California’s standard, savings from Oregon’s standard, and the savings from the U.S. DOE is 18 billion kilowatt hours per year, or more than enough to meet the annual electricity needs of 1.5 million US households. 1 These electricity savings will translate into $2.2 billion in lower utility bills for US citizens, and a reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 12.6 million metric tons. 2

1 www.appliance-standards.org/blog/doe-locks-california-efficiency-levels-rechargeable devices?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asap_blog+%28Appliance+Standards+Awareness+Project%29&utm_content=FeedBurner

2 www.epa.gov/energy/ghg-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references