The 80 Plus Program (Portland, OR), designed and administered by Ecos Consulting, announced that the model SS-400HT desktop computer power supply by Sea Sonic Electronics Co. Ltd. (Taipei, China) has just been certified 80 Plus-compliant – meaning that it is at least 80% efficient across a range of loads (20%, 50% and 100%), and that it has a true power factor of at least 0.9.
Electric utilities and energy-efficiency programs in eight US states have joined the 80 Plus program to help offset the extra cost of making desktop computers and desktop-derived servers more energy efficient. The 80 Plus program offers manufacturers of desktop computers and desktop-derived servers $5 and $10 incentives, respectively, for every unit containing a qualifying power supply that is sold in participating sponsors’ service territories.
“When we started the 80 Plus program last year, we knew we had set the bar for energy efficiency high,” stated Ecos Policy and Research Director and 80 Plus Technical Advisor Chris Calwell. “The market has been racing to respond. Seasonic got there first, and we congratulate them for this outstanding achievement.”
“We are delighted that the Seasonic SS-400HT ATX12V v2.0 is the first power supply in the world to be certified 80 Plus compliant,” said Seasonic Product Manager Vincent Chang. “The 80 Plus certification test is very demanding, particularly the 80% efficiency at 20% load requirement. For a 400 W power supply unit, this is only 80 W. High efficiency at such low power is difficult to reach, so this is an achievement our engineers can be especially proud of.”
