Product category:
Power Supply ICs and Controllers
News Release from: Power Integrations
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 26 January 2007
Power conversion ICs add up to global
savings
Power Integrations reckons that its power conversion ICs with EcoSmart technology have saved consumers and businesses worldwide an estimated US $2 billion on their electricity bills.
Power Integrations reckons that its power conversion ICs with EcoSmart technology have saved consumers and businesses worldwide an estimated US $2 billion on their electricity bills The company's ICs are used to replace outdated, energy-wasting power supplies such as copper-and-iron linear transformers, also known as "energy vampires"
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 6 Nov 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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The company calculates that for every linear transformer that is replaced by EcoSmart ICs the consumer saves between $3 and $6 on their energy bills over the average product life.
Power supplies are a necessity for almost every electronic product.
However, power supplies based on old technologies such as linear transformers have efficiency levels as low as 30% and rarely exceeding 50%, so they consume far more power than is actually required to operate the equipment that they supply.
Further reading
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Power Integrations has unveiled a 3W charger reference design that consumes less than 30mW of no-load power.
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Power Integrations has expanded its DPA-Switch family of integrated circuits, introducing a low-profile option for the power over Ethernet market and other high-voltage DC/DC applications.
Moreover, these older power supplies also consume a significant amount of power when their products are in "sleep" or standby modes.
In contrast, Power Integrations' EcoSmart ICs enable power supplies that operate at substantially higher efficiency levels and reduce standby power waste by up to 95% without adding to the cost of the end product.
Balu Balakrishnan, CEO of Power Integrations, commented: "We introduced EcoSmart in 1998 and in May 2005 announced that this technology had saved consumers and businesses $1 billion off their electricity bills".
"Now, less than two years later, we see that the amount saved has doubled to an estimated $2 billion - which demonstrates that the uptake of our technology is accelerating rapidly as designers respond to the challenges set down in energy-efficiency specifications and standards issued by Energy Star, the California Energy Commission, the EU, China and other policy makers around the world".
EcoSmart products cover the power range of more than 70% of all AC/DC power supplies built worldwide: LinkSwitch, 0 to 5W; TinySwitch-III, 5 to 28W; and TOPSwitch-GX, 7 to 210W.
Power Integrations' Green Room website contains information on the issue of energy waste from inefficient power supplies, as well as tips on how to minimise the amount of energy wasted by household and office electronics.
The Green Room also provides a comprehensive guide to energy-efficiency standards around the world, as well as a host of reference designs and software to assist in the design of energy-efficient power supplies. Request free introductory details about products from Power Integrations ...
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