In Switzerland there are around three million coffee machines in use in households and offices, and they account for an annual consumption of approximately 400 million kilowatt hours. This is equivalent to the electricity consumption of the city of Lucerne. It is important to be aware of the fact that 75 percent of the electricity consumption of coffee machines is for keeping it warm in standby mode. If we always switch the machine off and take the time to wait for it to heat up, we can save a great deal of electricity. But of course it is also important to ensure that we use a model that consumes as low a level of electricity as possible. The energy label for coffee machines was introduced in autumn 2009.

The savings potential is considerable: if everyone were from now on to only buy energy-efficient coffee machines (which consume 30 to 50 percent less electricity), throughout the country it would be possible to save between 25 and 40 million Swiss francs a year in electricity costs. Each year, around 500,000 new coffee machines are sold in Switzerland. For an overview of the market, please visit the "energyday" web site (see below).