The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced unspecified financial support for the California Plug Load Research Center (CalPlug). Already among CalPlug’s founding advisory board members, CEA now becomes CalPlug’s largest private-sector donor and a Core Supporter alongside the California Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission.
Last year, CEA released a report “Energy Consumption of Consumer Electronics in US Homes in 2013,” which found CE devices accounted for 12 percent of residential electricity consumption in the US in 2013.
CEA took issue with a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that found in 2013, the world’s networked devices consumed around 616 TWh of electricity, the majority of which was used in standby mode. Of that total, around 400 TWh was wasted because of inefficient technology.
CalPlug was established in 2011 at the University of California, Irvine to improve energy efficiency in the use and design of appliances and consumer electronics. The center focuses on efficiency evaluation of CE, user-behavior studies and developing energy efficiency solutions, and addresses challenges in plug-load efficiency for both residential and commercial buildings.