EPA sets strict rules for Energy Star 4.0

PC vendors that want to gain marketing leverage by displaying an “Energy Star” sticker on their computers have nine months to meet a tough new specification announced Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Pending adoption by the European Union, Energy Star version 4.0 will take effect on July 20, 2007.

The changes mark the first time the government has updated its spec since July 2000, raising the bar for manufacturers of desktops, notebooks, tablets, workstations, low-end servers, and game consoles. The spec does not apply to large and midrange servers, thin clients and blades, or handhelds and PDAs (personal digital assistants).

Federal regulators moved to set stricter standards because 98 percent of eligible PCs were meeting the previous Energy Star target, the agency said.

“Energy Star adds value by making it easy for consumers to identify computers that are more energy efficient than conventional models. Therefore, EPA does not intend to set an Energy Star specification that all models can meet,” EPA Product Manager Craig Hershberg said in a memo to vendors and manufacturers. “In order to ensure that Energy Star continues to differentiate the market for energy-efficient computers and accelerate the market penetration of energy-efficient technologies, the existing energy efficiency criteria must be evaluated and revised.”

Indeed, only 26.9 percent of notebooks capable of playing TV tuners would meet the new idle cap of 22 watts, the agency said. EPA regulators plan to announce an even stricter, Tier 2 standard by Jan. 1, 2009, set to include only the top 25 percent of efficient PCs.

The new requirements apply mainly to a PC’s efficiency in idle mode, not how well it runs under a maximum workload. For instance, vendors must set qualifying PCs to switch their displays into sleep mode within 15 minutes of user inactivity, and switch the entire computer into sleep mode within 30 minutes of inactivity.

Furthermore, desktops, low-end servers and gaming consoles must consume no more than 2 watts of power in standby mode, or 4 watts in sleep mode. Notebooks and tablets must use no more than 1 watt of power in standby mode and no more than 1.7 watts in sleep mode.

“This translates to huge energy savings if the power management feature remains enabled after it gets to the end user,” said EPA spokeswoman Katharine Osdoba. “We have been very successful in getting to high enabling rates with monitors and are aiming to do the same with computers.” The agency hopes its new standard will push PC vendors to include power management technology in 40 percent of computers by 2010, 60 percent by 2012, and 80 percent by 2014.

In another requirement, the new spec demands at least 80 percent efficiency for the internal power supply, a big jump from the 65 to 70 percent efficiency typically found today, said Jeff Austin, a product marketing manager with Intel Corp.

“Energy Star looks at the total AC power coming out of the wall at the system level, so you need to look at the power supply, onboard voltage regulator on the motherboard, peripherals like hard drives, and the chipsets and processors,” Austin said.

Intel plans to publish a white paper by the end of 2006 that will act as a “how-to design guide” for small system vendors. The paper will simplify the specification language, provide power measurement tools, and give advice on how to pick the most efficient software and components.

Meanwhile, major PC vendors like Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. have enough in-house researchers to adopt their own designs to the new standards.

Indeed, HP plans to offer one aspect of the Energy Star spec — an 80 percent efficient power supply — by February 2007 for its 7000 series business desktops worldwide and 5000 series desktops in the U.S.

To meet the rest of the requirements, HP engineers must test various combinations of memory, graphic cards, hard drives, optical drives and processors, said Nancy Bowman, product marketing manager for commercial desktops. She could not predict what percentage of HP desktops will qualify for Energy Star version 4.0, but it will be probably be less than the current 100 percent since the new standard is more stringent.

The greatest demand for Energy Star-approved PCs comes from government and education customers, who can save the most money through reduced electric bills for thousands of PCs running through a four-year lifecycle, she said.