European Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/826 took effect on May 9, 2025, establishing new upper limits on standby mode power consumption for electrical and electronic equipment. According to a press release from the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy dated May 8, 2025, the new regulation covers approximately 800 million products sold annually and is projected to save 4 TWh of electricity per year by 2030, translating to EUR 530 million in annual consumer savings.
Key Limits and Timelines
- Off mode: Power consumption capped at 0.5W; further reduced to 0.3W starting May 9, 2027. This means devices that are fully switched off but still connected to mains power will have their energy draw strictly limited.
- Networked standby mode: Upper limit set at 2–7W, with specific values depending on product category. Networked standby refers to the state where a device maintains a network connection to receive remote commands or updates, which is the most common low-power operating mode for smart home devices.
- Newly covered categories: Wi-Fi routers, wireless speakers, electric standing desks, and motorized blinds, previously outside the scope of regulation, are now subject to the new requirements. These categories happen to be core components of the smart home ecosystem.
Impact on Smart Home Products
Smart home devices, due to their “always-on” nature, have long been a focus of energy efficiency concerns regarding standby power. The implementation of this regulation means:
- Smart appliances, routers, speakers, and similar products exported to the EU market must meet the new standby power limits or cannot be sold within the EU. For cross-border e-commerce sellers targeting the European market, this represents a hard market access threshold.
- For consumers, compliant products will consume less standby power in daily use, contributing to lower electricity costs over time. For a household with ten or more smart devices, saving several watts of standby power per device creates a cumulative effect that should not be overlooked.
- Routers, as the central hub of home networks, have standby power performance that directly affects overall household energy consumption. Including Wi-Fi routers in the regulatory scope encourages manufacturers to optimize low-power designs while maintaining network availability.
Our smart appliances category (30 products), networking category (25 products), and smart speakers category (30 products) encompass a variety of product types. Energy efficiency parameters and applicable markets for each product should be verified on the product detail pages. Learn more at About Us.
Information current as of September 2026. Please refer to official sources for the latest updates.
参考来源 / Sources
- European Commission Directorate-General for Energy, 2025-05-08, EU Consumers Save Energy: New Limits on Standby Modes