Standby Power Consumption in Belgium

Electric appliances consume electricity when they are in standby mode and sometimes even in off-mode. These "losses" of each appliance individually are not large but the sum over all appliances is no longer negligible. The standby losses of ten households are investigated. The standby power varies from 7 to 134 W and has an average of 40 W. The standby consumption is on average 274 kWh/year, representing 8% of the yearly consumption of an average household. With the 1-Watt plan, it is possible to reduce the standby losses to a significantly lower level. Other possibilities to reduce the standby power are standards and technology improvement.