A worthy undertaking
As Editorial Director of this publication one of my tasks is to make certain our content evolves with the needs of the electronic design industry as it continues to grow. Toward that end, in this issue we debut the Electronic Products Energy Savings Initiative. At its core the Initiative calls on the design engineering community to take a leadership role in meeting a societal responsibility by developing energy-efficient products. The program kicks off with the first of a series of brief, informative contributed articles written and edited to provide insight into energy-saving methodologies for diverse applications.
A call for design engineers to take the lead in developing energy-efficient products
Why now? Apart from its Good Citizen appeal, as energy costs rise�and history suggests that electricity bills will continue to rise and rolling blackouts will continue to occur, regardless of whether gasoline prices are $2.35 a gallon or $3.35 a gallon�if industry doesn't act on its own to lasso power consumption the government surely will intervene.
I'll leave further commentary on the virtues/sins of government intervention in private enterprise to others. But as an example of how one state agency hardly covered itself in glory, consider that last April the Consumer Electronics Association had to respond to the California Energy Commission (CEC) when the latter group decided to set energy standards for digital television adapters�a product not yet on the market.
CEC jumped offsides by mandating energy consumption specifications even before industry had the opportunity to properly define these converter boxes, which will allow existing analog televisions to receive the new digital and high-definition television signals by antenna.
For the most part government has limited its role to a voluntary, market-driven approach to saving energy, such as the federal Energy Star program. But even Energy Star standards are fluid. Until recently they centered on reducing standby power mode losses in household products; now the specs are being modified to include energy use when devices are turned on.
EPA has produced Energy Star requirements for home imaging systems (fax, printer, copier, and scanner), computer monitors, battery chargers and the external power adapters used in devices such as notebook computers, mobile phones and digital cameras. On average, 5 to 10 adapters are used in the typical U.S. home and more than 1 billion new adapters are shipped worldwide each year. The estimated 1.5 billion adapters currently in use in the United States consume about 3% of the nation's electricity production.
While the technology exists to achieve operating efficiencies of 90%, EPA's research found that many external adapters in use have an energy-efficiency rating of only 30% to 60%. If all external power adapters in use in the U.S. were Energy Star qualified, it is estimated the country would save over 5 billion kWh of energy and prevent the release of more than 4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions into our environment.
Another fertile ground for improving energy efficiency is in motion control. As International Rectifier's Ulli Resch wrote in a recent issue of Electronic Products : “Motors are driving demand for electricity, accounting for about half of the electricity we consume, according to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Many of these motors are found throughout modern household appliances, yet remain driven by antiquated electromechanical control systems. The situation is changing, however, as manufacturers move to replace these highly inefficient drives with electronic, variable-speed control systems capable of saving up to 60% of the energy being consumed by the older generation of appliances .” ( Aug. 2006, Supplement, p. 19).
Our Energy Savings Initiative calls upon the design engineering community to become the bandleader in meeting our environmental responsibility by developing products that contribute to increased energy efficiency. We make this call knowing that for the already overworked EE, dealing with supplemental issues such as energy saving may seem like volunteering for the sort of discomfort found in, say, meeting with an IRS auditor. We hope to demonstrate that the process can be relatively painless as long as you integrate power efficiency into all phases of product design, starting with product definition. Turn to page 99 and let's begin the journey together. . . .
Murray Slovick
mslovick@hearst.com
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