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Consumption under 1 watt a must by 2011
YUTHANA PRAIWAN
Electrical and electronic product manufacturers will be required by law to improve standby power consumption to less than one watt by 2011, according to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat).
Egat plans to set the mandatory standard that will be enforced under the Consumer Protection Act by the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB), said Banpot Sangkeo, director of Egat's system planning division.
According to Egat testing reports, electronics and electrical products now have a standby mode that consumes around four to five watts per 20 hours.
"If you plug in a rice cooker in a standby mode, you will waste around four or five units per day of power without even using it," Mr Banpot said.
Manufacturers and importers would be informed about the new standard over the next two months, and that two years should be sufficient time for them to improve their products.
He said the OCPB had been asked to join the programme as it would take a long time to draft a new law with product requirements, and these traditionally require two or three years to be effective.
Home electronics such as microwave ovens, televisions, stereo components, DVD players, facsimile machines, personal computers, and photocopiers are all required by law to upgrade their quality.
Manufacturers need not worry about higher costs as the standby mode power usage upgrade requires changing only an integrated circuit board part, he said.
Standby mode alone causes power losses totalling two to three billion kilowatt hours or 500 megawatts per year, equal to the annual capacity of the Bhumibol hydropower plant.
Thailand would be the first nation in Southeast Asia to enforce the power-saving standard following Europe, the US, Japan and Korea.
Manufacturers would eventually find this standard helps them to prepare for similar laws required by other countries, he added.
"Since awareness of climate change has grown worldwide, people will need energy-efficient products everywhere," Mr Banpot said.
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