The Consumer Electronics Association has approved a new standard to help CE devices manage their power consumption.
CEA-2047, CE-Energy Usage Information, can apply to radio receivers as well. Overall, the spec enables consumer electronics devices to communicate how much energy they use to consumers’ computers, mobile devices running “smart energy” apps and third-party energy management services.
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, according to CEA. 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.
Bill Rose, chair of CEA’s R7.8 working group that developed the standard, tells Radio World that, basically, CEA-2047 is applicable to any standalone device that uses energy and has a means to communicate to other devices, and could apply to portable and tabletop radio receivers.
An emergency radio, for example, has two modes of operation — “standby” and “on.”
That emergency radio “uses 0.5 watts in standby mode (listening for an emergency broadcast) and 3 watts in active mode — it is turned on and playing audio through its speaker,” says Rose. “CEA-2047 does support that. The radio could use an estimated energy usage value that is programmed in by the manufacturer, in which case it would log how long it was in each mode and report its estimated usage, or it could use circuitry to actually measure the energy used and report those values.”
The standard can be used by devices operating on a home network including Wi-Fi, Ethernet, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, and others. CEA-2047 is compatible with the Green Button initiative, an industry-led effort to provide consumers with access to their energy usage data.
CEA cooperated with the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel to develop CEA-2047. The standard will be submitted to ANSI to become an American National Standard.
