§ Lord Lloyd-Webberasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their estimate of how much energy is consumed in the United Kingdom each month by television sets in stand-by mode. [HL1383]
§ Lord WhittyThe Government's market transformation programme estimates that the 60 million television sets in the UK consume, on average, approximately 90 million kilowatt hours per month while they are in stand-by mode—approximately 8 per cent of their total average monthly energy consumption.
In order to try to reduce the overall energy consumed by televisions the market transformation programme (www.mtprog.com) has been encouraging manufacturers to reduce both the "on" and the "stand-by" power consumption of televisions through the adoption of design improvements, an EU-wide voluntary code of conduct, and best practice guidelines and targets.
The EU-wide voluntary agreement on televisions has been particularly successful in reducing the average energy consumed by televisions in stand-by mode with the majority of new televisions sold in the UK soon to consume around one watt of power in stand-by mode rather than the three to eight watts consumed by older models. We expect this agreement to be extended to cover additional consumer electronics shortly.
46WAIn addition, the Government's initiative on sustainable procurement, announced last autumn, includes a requirement for government departments which purchase televisions to specify televisions with stand-by power requirements of less that one watt.