Mr. Green

February 3, 2010 - The team at ENERGY STAR continues to go after energy hogs in homes and offices. The next group of products coming under the ENERGY STAR umbrella is small network equipment (SNE). This includes: wired routers and switches, access points with IEEE 802.11 (a.k.a. "wi-fi") connectivity (including repeaters), broadband modems (DSL and cable), integrated home access devices (IHAD), and optical network termination devices (ONT).

January 20, 2010 - Last fall I wrote about final changes ENERGY STAR was making to its requirements for integral LED light bulbs (see: ENERGY STAR Continues Integral LED Light Bulb Spec Quest). The final version of the new requirements came out last month and, after taking another look at the new spec, I noticed something interesting.

January 12, 2010 - Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) recently announced that it will be modifying its standby power performance standards, scheduled to be published later this year. As mentioned in a Mr. Green blog from February of last year (see: Reducing Standby Power Waste in the Great White North, Eh?), the proposed spec was slated to cover five different product types: televisions, video products, compact audio products, printers, and multi-function devices.

January 4, 2010 - Based on this month’s ENERGY STAR Game Console stakeholder call, it looks like there are still a few more hoops to jump through in order to reach the program’s “Game Over” screen.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, ENERGY STAR Gets Serious About Games, the power consumed by these consoles (i.e. Wii, Xbox, PlayStation, etc.) is no laughing matter. Studies show that when left idle, some game boxes can use over 100 W waiting for user input.

December 29, 2009 - At the end of 2009, ENERGY STAR will sunset its current programmable thermostat spec. To take its place, the EPA is working on a new spec that will specifically address smart technology. The first draft was released in October and feedback has been posted on the ENERGY STAR website.