One Watt Initiative - Policy

Policy

The One Watt Initiative was launched by the IEA in 1999 to ensure through international cooperation that by 2010 all new appliances sold in the world use only one watt in standby mode. This would reduce CO₂ emissions by 50 million tons in the OECD countries alone by 2010; the equivalent to removing 18 million cars from the roads.

In 2001 US President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13221, which states that every government agency, “when it purchases commercially available, off-the-shelf products that use external standby power devices, or that contain an internal standby power function, shall purchase products that use no more than one watt in their standby power consuming mode.”

By 2005 South Korea and Australia had introduced the one watt benchmark in all new electrical devices, and according to the IEA other countries, notably Japan and China, had undertaken "strong measures" to reduce standby power use.

In July 2007 California's 2005 appliance standards came into effect, limiting external power supply standby power to 0.5 watts.

On 6 January 2010, the European Commission's EC Regulation 1275/2008 came into force regulating requirements for standby and "off mode" electric power consumption of electrical and electronic household and office equipment. The regulations mandate that from 6 January 2010 "off mode" and standby power shall not exceed 1W, "standby-plus" power (providing information or status display in addition to possible reactivation function) shall not exceed 2W (these figures are halved on 6 January 2013). Equipment must where appropriate provide off mode and/or standby mode when the equipment is connected to the mains power source.