The EPA wants to save $2 billion yearly with new power efficiency rules

30 to 60% energy might be saved as a result of implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new power-efficiency specifications. These specifications set higher power-efficiency requirements for consumer electronics and they are applicable to PCs and PC-related devices. Energy Star specifications for other products such as TVs, refrigerators, servers and light bulbs are being developed by the EPA. 

Power-efficiency specifications set 40 kilowatts per hour for laptops while desktops are required to consume energy between148 KwH and 234 KwH. 

US$2 billion could be saved yearly provided that all computers sold in the U.S. meet the new power-efficiency specifications, noted a spokeswoman for the Energy Star program at the EPA, Katharine Kaplan. She says "We really care about delivering dollar savings to consumers. We know that is important, perhaps more now than ever. " 

To make their contributions to saving large amounts of money on energy, companies like Apple, Dell, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard have started to ship products which meet the EPA’s latest requirements. Particularly, the conformation of more than 25 Think- branded business and Idea-branded consumer PCs with the EPA’s requirements has been stated by Lenovo while the company's ThinkPad and IdeaPad laptop models and select desktops have been already recognized as power efficient. The similar statement has been made by the spokesman of HP who said that twenty-six HP PC product families possessed configurations that were expected to meet the new energy specifications. 

Specifications for home networking equipment are expected to be launched in the nearest future as well. Furthermore, the EPA is conducting research on enterprise-level UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) and storage energy specifications.

The EAP expects quick enforcement of the power-efficiency specifications as the U.S. government and several corporations require the adherence to specifications.