The Consumer Electronics Association’s Technology & Standards Forum approved a new standard for measuring energy usage of consumer electronic devices, enabling devices to communicate this information to consumers’ computer, mobile devices running smart-energy apps, and third-party energy management services.
The Green Button Initiative — an industry-led effort that provides consumers with easy access to their energy usage data — defines how consumers can access a history of their home’s energy usage from their smart meters. However, the initiative does not tell them how much energy a particular device or appliance uses, and getting that information requires either an external metering device or the device itself to make the measurement.
CEA-2047 recognizes that a manufacturer knows how much energy a device will use during operation based on its design. This information can be programmed into the device and used to calculate its energy usage over time, without adding complex metering circuitry. An energy management system or a smart-energy app can then gather the information over the network and present it to consumers on their TVs, PCs, or mobile devices. CEA-2047 is compatible with the Green Button initiative.
CEA-2047 also enables the Internet of Things to be energy-aware. The standard can be used by devices operating on any home network including Wi-Fi, Ethernet, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, and others. And because the standard uses estimation rather than real-time measurement, it is anticipated that almost any communicating device in the home will be able to easily add this capability.
Bill Rose, chair of CEA’s R7.8 working group that developed the standard said, “With CEA-2047/CE-EUI, energy consumption in the Internet of Things can be broken down to individual devices such as appliances, pool pumps and heaters, air conditioning systems, and other devices so consumers can see exactly where, how much, and when electricity is being used. The standard will also enable consumer-authorized, third-party developers and services to grow by providing them the information they need to help consumers save on their energy bills.”
Publication of CEA-2047 parallels other initiatives within the industry to reduce and monitor energy consumption. Other CEA standards in this area include CEA-2037-A, Determination of Television Set Power Consumption and ANSI/CEA-2043, Set-top Box (STB) Power Measurement. CEA cooperated with the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) on the development of CEA-2047. The standard will now be submitted to ANSI to become an American National Standard.
